I have written many posts relating to the fact that we live in a finite world. At some point, our ability to extract resources becomes constrained. At the same time, population keeps increasing. The usual outcome when population is too high for resources is “overshoot and collapse.” But this is not a topic that the politicians or central bankers or oligarchs who attend the World Economic Forum dare to talk about.
Instead, world leaders find a different problem, namely climate change, to emphasize above other problems. Conveniently, climate change seems to have some of the same solutions as “running out of fossil fuels.” So, a person might think that an energy transition designed to try to fix climate change would work equally well to try to fix running out of fossil fuels. Unfortunately, this isn’t really the way it works.
In this post, I will lay out some of the issues involved.
[1] There are many different constraints that new energy sources need to conform to.
These are a few of the constraints I see:
- Should be inexpensive to produce
- Should work with the current portfolio of existing devices
- Should be available in the quantities required, in the timeframe needed
- Should not pollute the environment, either when created or at the end of their lifetimes
- Should not add CO2 to the atmosphere
- Should not distort ecosystems
- Should be easily stored, or should be easily ramped up and down to precisely match energy timing needs
- Cannot overuse fresh water or scarce minerals
- Cannot require a new infrastructure of its own, unless the huge cost in terms of delayed timing and greater materials use is considered.
If an energy type is simply a small add-on to the existing system, perhaps a little deviation from the above list can be tolerated, but if there is any intent of scaling up the new energy type, all of these requirements must be met.
It is really the overall cost of the system that is important. Historically, the use of coal has helped keep the overall cost of the system down. Substitutes need to be developed considering the overall needs and cost of the system.
The reason why the overall cost of the system is important is because countries with high-cost energy systems will have a difficult time competing in a world market since energy costs are an important part of the cost of producing goods and services. For example, the cost of operating a cruise ship depends, to a significant extent, on the cost of the fuel it uses.
In theory, energy types that work with different devices (say, electric cars and trucks instead of those operated by internal combustion engines) can be used, but a long delay can be expected before a material shift in overall energy usage occurs. Furthermore, a huge ramp up in the total use of materials for production may be required. The system cannot work if the total cost is too high, or if the materials are not really available, or if the timing is too slow.
[2] The major thing that makes an economy grow is an ever increasing supply of inexpensive-to-produce energy products.
Food is an energy product. Let’s think of what happens when agriculture is mechanized, typically using devices that are made and operated using coal and oil. The cost of producing food drops substantially. Instead of spending, for example, 50% of a person’s wages on food, the percentage can gradually drop down to 20% of wages, and then to 10% of wages for food, and eventually even, say, to 2% of wages for food.
As spending on food falls, opportunity for other spending arises, even with wages remaining relatively level. With lower food expenditures, a person can spend more on books (made with energy products), or personal transportation (such as a vehicle), or entertainment (also made possible by energy products). Strangely enough, in order for an economy to grow, essential items need to become an ever decreasing share of everyone’s budget, so that citizens have sufficient left-over income available for more optional items.
It is the use of tools, made and operated with inexpensive energy products of the right types, that leverages human labor so that workers can produce more food in a given period of time. This same approach also makes many other goods and services available.
In general, the less expensive an energy product is, the more helpful it will be to an economy. A country operating with an inexpensive mix of energy products will tend to be more competitive in the world market than one with a high-cost mix of energy products. Oil tends to be expensive; coal tends to be inexpensive. This is a major reason why, in recent years, countries using a lot of coal in their energy mix (such as China and India) have been able to grow their economies much more rapidly than those countries relying heavily on oil in their energy mixes.
[3] If energy products are becoming more expensive to produce, or their production is not growing very rapidly, there are temporary workarounds that can hide this problem for quite a number of years.
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, world coal and oil consumption were growing rapidly. Natural gas, hydroelectric and (a little) nuclear were added, as well. Cost of production remained low. For example, the price of oil, converted to today’s dollar value, was less than $20 per barrel.
Once the idyllic 1950s and 1960s passed, it was necessary to hide the problems associated with the rising cost of production using several approaches:
- Increasing use of debt – really a promise of future goods and services made with energy
- Lower interest rates – permits increasing debt to be less of a financial burden
- Increasing use of technology – to improve efficiency in energy usage
- Growing use of globalization – to make use of other countries’ cheaper energy mix and lower cost of labor
After 50+ years, we seem to be reaching limits with respect to all of these techniques:
- Debt levels are excessive
- Interest rates are very low, even below zero
- Increasing use of technology as well as globalization have led to greater and greater wage disparity; many low level jobs have been eliminated completely
- Globalization has reached its limits; China has reached a situation in which its coal supply is no longer growing
[4] The issue that most people fail to grasp is the fact that with depletion, the cost of producing energy products tends to rise, but the selling prices of these energy products do not rise enough to keep up with the rising cost of depletion.
As a result, production of energy products tends to fall because production becomes unprofitable.
As we get further and further away from the ideal situation (oil less than $20 per barrel and rising in quantity each year), an increasing number of problems crop up:
- Both oil/gas companies and coal companies become less profitable.
- With lower energy company profits, governments can collect less taxes from these companies.
- As old wells and mines deplete, the cost of reinvestment becomes more of a burden. Eventually, new investment is cut back to the point that production begins to fall.
- With less growth in energy consumption, productivity growth tends to lag. This happens because energy is required to mechanize or computerize processes.
- Wage disparity tends to grow; workers become increasingly unhappy with their governments.
[5] Authorities with an incorrect understanding of why and how energy supplies fall have assumed that far more fossil fuels would be available than is actually the case. They have also assumed that relatively high prices for alternatives would be acceptable.
In 2012, Jorgen Randers prepared a forecast for the next 40 years for The Club of Rome, in the form of a book, 2052, with associated data. Looking at the data, we see that Randers forecast that world coal consumption would grow by 28% between 2010 and 2020. In fact, world coal consumption grew by 0% in that period. (This latter forecast is based on BP coal consumption estimates for 2010 and 2019 from BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2020, adjusted for the 2019 to 2020 period change using IEA’s estimate from its Global Energy Review 2021.)
It is very easy to assume that high estimates of coal resources in the ground will lead to high quantities of actual coal extracted and burned. The world’s experience between 2010 and 2020 shows that it doesn’t necessarily work out that way in practice. In order for coal consumption to grow, the delivered price of coal needs to stay low enough for customers to be able to afford its use in the end products it provides. Much of the supposed coal that is available is far from population centers. Some of it is even under the North Sea. The extraction and delivery costs become far too high, but this is not taken into account in resource estimates.
Forecasts of future natural gas availability suffer from the same tendency towards over-estimation. Randers estimated that world gas consumption would grow by 40% between 2010 and 2020, when the actual increase was 22%. Other authorities make similar overestimates of future fuel use, assuming that “of course,” prices will stay high enough to enable extraction. Most energy consumption is well-buried in goods and services we buy, such as the cost of a vehicle or the cost of heating a home. If we cannot afford the vehicle, we don’t buy it; if the cost of heating a family’s home rises too high, thrifty families will turn down the thermostat.
Oil prices, even with the recent run-up in prices, are under $75 per barrel. I have estimated that for profitable oil production (including adequate funds for high-cost reinvestment and sufficient taxes for governments), oil prices need to be over $120 per barrel. It is the lack of profitability that has caused the recent drop in production. These profitability problems can be expected to lead to more production declines in the future.
With this low-price problem, fossil fuel estimates used in climate model scenarios are almost certainly overstated. This bias would be expected to lead to overstated estimates of future climate change.
The misbelief that energy prices will always rise to cover higher costs of production also leads to the belief that relatively high-cost alternatives to fossil fuels would be acceptable.
[6] Our need for additional energy supplies of the right kinds is extremely high right now. We cannot wait for a long transition. Even 30 years is too long.
We saw in section [3] that the workarounds for a lack of growing energy supply, such as higher debt and lower interest rates, are reaching limits. Furthermore, prices have been unacceptably low for oil producers for several years. Not too surprisingly, oil production has started to decline:
What is really needed is sufficient energy of the right types for the world’s growing population. Thus, it is important to look at energy consumption on a per capita basis. Figure 2 shows energy production per capita for three groupings:
- Tier 1: Oil and Coal
- Tier 2: Natural Gas, Nuclear, and Hydroelectric
- Tier 3: Other Renewables, including Intermittent Wind and Solar
Figure 2 shows that the biggest drop is in Tier 1: Coal and Oil. In many ways, coal and oil are foundational types of energy for the economy because they are relatively easy to transport and store. Oil is important because it is used in operating agricultural machinery, road repair machinery, and vehicles of all types, including ships and airplanes. Coal is important partly because of its low cost, helping paychecks to stretch further for finished goods and services. Coal is used in many ways, including electricity production and making steel and concrete. We use coal and oil to keep electricity transmission lines repaired.
Figure 2 shows that Tier 2 energy consumption per capita was growing rapidly in the 1965 to 1990 period, but its growth has slowed in recent years.
The Green Energy sources in Tier 3 have been growing rapidly from a low base, but their output is still tiny compared to the overall output that would be required if they were to substitute for energy from both Tier 1 and Tier 2 sources. They clearly cannot by themselves power today’s economy.
It is very difficult to imagine any of the Tier 2 and Tier 3 energy sources being able to grow without substantial assistance from coal and oil. All of today’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 energy sources depend on coal and oil at many points in the chain of their production, distribution, operation, and eventual recycling. If we ever get to Tier 4 energy sources (such as fusion or space solar), I would expect that they too will need oil and/or coal in their production, transport and distribution, unless there is an incredibly long transition, and a huge change in energy infrastructure.
[7] It is easy for energy researchers to set their sights too low.
[a] We need to be looking at the extremely low energy cost structure of the 1950s and 1960s as a model, not some far higher cost structure.
We have been hiding the world’s energy problems for years behind rising debt and falling interest rates. With very high debt levels and very low interest rates, it is becoming less feasible to stimulate the economy using these approaches. We really need very inexpensive energy products. These energy products need to provide a full range of services required by the economy, not simply intermittent electricity.
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the ratio of Energy Earned to Energy Investment was likely in the 50:1 range for many energy products. Energy products were very profitable; they could be highly taxed. The alternative energy products we develop today need to have similar characteristics if they truly are to play an important role in the economy.
[b] A recent study says that greenhouse gas emissions related to the food system account for one-third of the anthropogenic global warming gas total. A way to grow sufficient food is clearly needed.
We clearly cannot grow food using intermittent electricity. Farming is not an easily electrified endeavor. If we do not have an alternative, the coal and oil that we are using now in agriculture really needs to continue, even if it requires subsidies.
[c] Hydroelectric electricity looks like a good energy source, but in practice it has many deficiencies.
Some of the hydroelectric dams now in place are over 100 years old. This is nearing the lifetime of the concrete in the dams. Considerable maintenance and repair (indirectly using coal and oil) are likely to be needed if these dams are to continue to be used.
The water available to provide hydroelectric power tends to vary greatly over time. Figure 3 shows California’s hydro electricity generation by month.
Thus, as a practical matter, hydroelectric energy needs to be balanced with fossil fuels to provide energy which can be used to power a factory or heat a home in winter. Battery storage would never be sufficient. There are too many gaps, lasting months at a time.
If hydroelectric energy is used in a tropical area with dry and wet seasons, the result would be even more extreme. A poor country with a new hydroelectric power plant may find the output of the plant difficult to use. The electricity can only be used for very optional activities, such as bitcoin mining, or charging up small batteries for lights and phones.
Any new hydroelectric dam runs the risk of taking away the water someone else was depending upon for irrigation or for their own electricity generation. A war could result.
[d] Current approaches for preventing deforestation mostly seem to be shifting deforestation from high income countries to low income countries. In total, deforestation is getting worse rather than better.
Figure 4 shows that deforestation is getting rapidly worse in Low Income countries with today’s policies. There is also a less pronounced trend toward deforestation in Middle Income countries. It is only in High Income countries that land areas are becoming more forested. In total (not shown), the forested area for the world as a whole falls, year after year.
Also, even when replanting is done, the new forests do not have the same characteristics as those made by natural ecosystems. They cannot house as many different species as natural ecosystems. They are likely to be less resistant to problems like insect infestations and forest fires. They are not true substitutes for the forest ecosystems that nature creates.
[e] The way intermittent wind and solar have been added to the electric grid vastly overpays these providers, relative to the value they add to the system. Furthermore, the subsidies for intermittent renewables tend to drive out more stable producers, degrading the overall condition of the grid.
If wind and solar are to be used, payments for the electricity they provide need to be scaled back to reflect the true value that they add to the overall system. In general, this corresponds to the savings in fossil fuel purchases that electricity providers need to make. This will be a small amount, perhaps 2 cents per kilowatt hour. Even this small amount, in theory, might be reduced to reflect the greater electricity transmission costs associated with these intermittent sources.
We note that China is making a major step in the direction of reducing subsidies for wind and solar. It has already dramatically cut its subsidies for wind energy; new subsidy cuts for solar energy will become effective August 1, 2021.
A major concern is the distorting impact that current pricing approaches for wind and solar have on the overall electrical system. Often, these approaches produce very low, or negative, wholesale prices for other providers. Nuclear providers are especially harmed by such practices. Nuclear is, of course, a low CO2 electricity provider.
It seems to me that in each part of the world, some utility-type provider needs to be analyzing what the overall funding of the electrical system needs to be. Bills to individuals and businesses need to reflect these actual expected costs. This approach might avoid the artificially low rates that the current pricing system often generates. If adequate funding can be achieved, perhaps some of the corner cutting that leads to electrical outages, such as recently encountered in California and Texas, might be avoided.
[8] When I look at the requirements for a successful energy transition and the obstacles we are up against, it is hard for me to see that any of the current approaches can be successful.
Unfortunately, it is hard for me to see how intermittent electricity can save the world economy, or even make a dent in our problems. We have searched for a very long time, but haven’t yet found solutions truly worth ramping up. Perhaps a new “Tier 4 approach” might be helpful, but such solutions seem likely to come too late.
World Banana Republic
Money has become worthless. Paying or not paying… it doesn’t matter anymore. No consequences. Need money? Oh well, we just create a few $T more. There are no consequences to this anyway.
This has gone on for so long now and to such an extend that I think the fabric of society has been permanently damaged. We are not talking about a couple of weeks emergency support here. People have now been programmed in their brains that wealth can be created out of nothing. They won’t let that be taken away from them now!
So what is the point of working? Why be prudent and responsible? The key to increasing wealth is not working your a$$ off and saving, but to receive handouts, rake up debt (that gets devalued), own bitcoin / stocks/ houses, which doesn’t do anything for society or economy. Working and producing anything of value is for suckers.
At some point, this silliness has to fail.
Note that the dollar is very strong as measured against a basket of other currencies. I predict that the dollar will continue to increase in strength for the next two years, because I think the U.S. rate of growth in real GDP will be higher than the global rate for the next two years.
MMT to infinity !
Fast Eddy is a creation of OFW… Gail has mentioned a force has compelled her to create this blog… without this blog Fast Eddy does not happen….
Gail = Mother Mary 2.0?
Is Fast Eddy the Second Coming???
Fast Eddy says he is now accepting applications for positions as Apostles…
Respectfully said, or change, probably for the better after some speed bumps.
Dennis L.
Good insights.
Truly, the best evidence we have for being at the apex of civilisation is that everything logical, sustainable or healthy is shunned and denigrated, while instant gratification, criminality and mental illness is exalted and publicly celebrated.
It’s a long way down, and the fall can’t come fast enough.
no point in working more than the minimum, can’t take it with you when you die and if you’re like me you have no heirs to leave it to either. It’s all going to be taken by the death care industry or the government eventually so party it up and stick someone else with the final bills. I use to be very future oriented and a big saver but after dealing with my parents deaths(and their material stuff) I decided it’s best take it easy, don’t work too hard, don’t accumulate too many material things, buy a round of drinks for your friends. Don’t want to outlive my assets but also don’t want to die with a big nest egg either. Suppose it doesn’t really matter if we’re all on the Titanic.
If one leaves nothing for the next generation, that seems selfish to me.
There would appear to be extremes, on the one hand booze, fast cars, fast women, on the other a cathedral which serves many generations.
A hunter gather society appears to start from go with each generation, easy to romanticize, perhaps very difficult an painful to live, having never tried it, can’t say. Statistically, given a chance between living in the city and hunting a buffalo for dinner, most op for the city.
Your post is all about you, by choice the egg that ended up with you made a poor choice, no more eggs. There seems to be a work around to this in that those without direct descendants will support brothers, cousins, etc. with descendants, something is better than nothing.
Eggs are pretty smart, tough to outwit.
Dennis L.
I have no young relatives. Myself and my siblings did not have children, even in my extended family of 12 cousins only 1 had a child whom I’ve never met. Suppose to could leave my estate to the Fast Eddy Foundation or maybe the local animal shelter. Have no one else and my boyfriend is significantly older so I’m sure I’ll outlive him too. I imagine there’s going to be many like me with no family in our elder years thanks to collapsing demographics. What do you recommend?
Leave your money to The Nature Conservancy. My children don’t need it, they all earn in the six figures; three of them majored in Economics and three of them have Master’s Degrees. Bill Gates created a foundation to give his money to worthy causes; Warren Buffet is also giving all his wealth to charity when he dies. Andrew Carnegie gave his wealth away to create the Carnegie Public Libraries.
I rather die penniless by working and consuming as little as possible while leaving nothing to anyone.
You might want to look at the nc books first…
Gosh, you really think that Gates runs a charity with altruistic purposes ? I’m rather floored by that.
The way foundations work is fascinating, do look it up it will amuse.
Mother Earth will be just fine without our ‘help’…. extinction is our gift to her!
Mike Shellman and LTO Survivor have just announced that the communist criminals at the federal reserve have destroyed the productivity of the last remaining oil dreg in NA. This post below basically confirms you are as good as dead in 3 years.
Mike Shellman
Ignored
07/01/2021 at 6:42 am
Each of the watermelon hearts in both Permian sub-basins are being over drilled. As the oily gentlemen are trying to explain, pressure depletion is well underway. Gas desorption is leading to rising gas to oil ratios and declining liquids productivity per well per lateral foot, the correlation evident beginning in 2017. The USGS did not foresee this when it made its lofty predictions of POSSIBLE resource recovery, “technically” speaking, years ago. Mother Nature is now having Her say. Unless you can find an economic way to re-pressurize the entire, say, Midland Basin, that problem is NOT going away. Its going to get much worse.
So, much of that hypothetical USGS stuff is going to get left behind, stranded, immobile. Stuck. I don’t quite understand why that is so hard to accept. It was a wild ass guess to start with.
So your next model needs to be away from the heart(s) and out toward the rind. Goat pasture. Where well productivity will be less, costs higher, economics worse. S. Korea and China will be interested in these models; they don’t care how deeply America gets in debt and how fast we drain the remainder of our oil resources, they just like cheap Permian Basin imports.
All this HZ tight oil stuff is going down hill now; a few more years will do it. Its just the oil business.
This is more fear mongering from SL. Pumping water into the ‘melon hearts’ will re-pressurize the wells. It’s easy to separate the oil from water when it comes back up then re-inject the dirty water back down to repeat the process endlessly until every last drop of oil is recovered to fuel my new Dodge Ram Hemi. This is all powered by the natural gas content of the well instead of flaring it. It’s as close to perpetual motion as one can get. I’m confident we’ll liberate every last morsel of trapped energy.
Perhaps! If the price can be kept high enough.
How high?
I keep saying the price needs to be over $120 per barrel to provide enough funds for all of the players. This price level is unaffordable to consumers.
It is affordable to consumers at $120 per barrel. During the 1970s the price of oil, adjusted for inflation was over $120 per barrel, and the economy survived despite recession and inflation. Today in the U.K. and the E.U. economies thrive with gasoline taxes of about $5 a gallon, which is equivalent to much more than oil at $120 per barrel. Thus the evidence does not support your statement.
So the UK and EU economies are thriving again, are they? Then we must rejoice. Such news comes slowly to us lowly peasants down on the farm.
It is affordable to consumers at $120 per barrel.
“All of the players” presumably includes the governments that collect the $5 dollars a gallon (equal to $210 dollars on a barrel [42 gallons] of gasoline). Crude oil at $120 dollars a barrel without taxes may translated into affordable gasoline for a lot of users, but add current taxes and it gets a lot less affordable for a lot more users, including for us lowly peasants down on the farm. The last time the price of crude went that high in 2008, and the price spike didn’t last very long, spending only 6 or 7 months above $100. Affordability? Don’t talk to me about affordability? Consumption plummeted, unemployment mushroomed, debt exploded. Commodity and property prices crashed. I remember ordinary normie people mothballing their cars and contemplating doom. The media called it “an energy crisis” “a financial crisis” and “The Great Recession”. It’s known around around to this day as “The Lehman Shock” even by people who have no idea what a “Lehman” was. Oil hit its $147 peak in July 2008 and Lehman Brothers collapsed in September.
Thus the evidence does not support your statement.
Okay, we accept that as a number. Per TM, discretionary continues to die, necessities continue on as before. There is not enough for all the players, consumers, need to make necessities. is that so bad? Life was fine without TV, game boy or whatever. We may give up charcoal grills for steak, but a hamburger with family around a kitchen table is not all that bad.
We may have time to do a Musk, we seem to be going off a cliff with the current trajectory, seems worth a try to me; our gift to succeeding generations.
Dennis L.
Not really. Oil fields can become water flooded, and if the water stops moving for a short time can be hard to ever recover previous levels. LTO Survivor has a pretty extensive conversation about this with the other oil insiders over at peakoilbarrel.com this week: https://peakoilbarrel.com/annual-reserve-revisions-part-iv-shale-producers/#comments
The article is about the recent downard revisions of shale reserves.
Bitcoin is COLLAPSING again.
Governor NewDUNCE of Kalifornia is telling his People Temples Dumbshits they don’t ever have to pay rent. He’s sending them checks again so they can buy Bitcoin as it collapses to 500.
The insolvent Federal Reserve is doing a 2008 Bailout every single day now.
All the scam IPO’s they are frantically dumping onto this SCAM “market”.
The power is going off.
It’s starting to feel very real now… 10+ years waiting … and this is surely IT….
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die (unless FE is the Second Coming … (which is looking increasingly likely) — if so his first act will be to banish all DelusiSTANIS — then he’ll usher in the SI swimsuit models… some great techno tunes… and unlimited High Grade Gear….. God may be regret designating FE as the Saviour… it was always a risky move)
WTI is SKYROCKETING….Hahahahaha.
The price of gasoline in Vancouver has doubled in 1 year. Now I predict it will double again in the next 6 months.
The Moron Governor is Kalifornia is broke.
Big Tech = Big Wreck in next 6 months.
As Devil Covid rages across the planet… what would be more fitting than launching thousands of nuclear missiles as the Icing on the CEP Cake?
Truly magnificent and catastrophic.
Missiles Go Boom Boom Boom!!!
We should all watch “Dr. Strangelove” again. It is the third funniest film of all time. The funniest is Mel Brook’s “The Producers.” The next funniest is “Some Like It Hot.” I love movies, and I love comedies the most. As Aristotle pointed out, there is great and deep truth in dramatic comedy.
Since this is a Great Reveal… is there anything else Don likes???
John Maynard Keynes wrote his famous essay, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” in 1930. He said that assuming a 2% compound interest rate in economic growth, the economic problem of scarcity would be solved (or at least be in sight of a solution) by 2030 in prosperous countries. The permanent problem of economics, he wrote, is the constructive use of leisure. He looked at the British aristocracy as an avant guard of a society based on leisure. He was not optimistic that this problem of the constructive use of leisure would have a good solution, based on the lives of typical aristocrats. For more on this theme, see Aldous Huxley’s most famous book, BRAVE NEW WORlD, which is a satire on the English class system and a critique of capitalism.
men of the supposed intellect of Keynes defy belief
the leisure of the aristocracy (and he was affilialted to them, if not strictly speaking an aristo) was entirely predicated on the labour/resource input of the lower orders, at least at the ratio of 100:1–maybe more.
that wealth pyramid was sound until some fall washed it away with the power of stem
Keynes assumed in some weird way, that the resource base that supported leisure was infinite, and one assumes he expected everyone to become an aristocrat
No, Keynes did not assume that everyone would become an aristocrat in 2030 any more than Huxley thought everyone would be an Alpha in BRAVE NEW WORLD. Note that there is abundant coal and oil for the next twenty years, not to mention nuclear energy, which France has relied on for about fifty years without serious accident or pollution. Also note that India exports rice: The Green Revolution has succeeded, and Paul Erhlich was quite wrong in “The Population Bomb” to predict “ghastly famines” in the 1970s for Bihar state in India. Agricultural surpluses, not shortages, are the problem in prosperous countries; the U.S. pays farmers about $25 billion a year not to grow crops, and in the E.U. there are mountains of surplus butter and an ocean of wine bought up by governments to subsidize farmers, who persist in producing surpluses. Wine is a great bargain today because of a great global surplus.
I should have said
‘expected everyone to reach the prosperity level of an aristocrat’
the things you detail couldn’t be forecasted accurately…it isn’t a matter of abundance of coal and oil—its a matter of affordability
apologies too for predictive text–I check it but sometimes miss things
Coal and oil are now cheaper (adjusted for inflation) than they were in the 1970s. France continues to sell cheap nuclear-generated electricity to Germany. Note that gasoline is very cheap in the U.S.; in the U.K. and the E.U. the gasoline tax is about $5 a gallon, and this price does not disrupt their prosperous countries.
The cost of extracting coal and oil is not higher (adjusted for inflation), however. The problem, of course, is that the oil and coal companies are losing money. They can’t make adequate reinvestment in new fields. They can’t pay adequate taxes to their governments. They try to hide this problem from the public the best they can, by publishing very optimistic “breakeven” numbers. Few people figure out how bad the situation is. If they don’t reinvest, their financial reports can even suggest that they are “profitable,” even though, like Shell, their future oil production will fall and fall and fall.
According to Robert Rapier, oil companies are making plenty of money, especially ConocoPhillips. He knows more about the oil industry and oil markets than either of us does, Gail.
‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.’
comes to mind….
I know the CFO of a fairly substantial oil company … he does not think we have hit a tipping point on oil… he probably assumes we can tolerate the $300 price tag required to extract it…
I thought god worked for free
apart from the odd virgin sacrifice
tho they are in short supply these days
Maynard Keynes belonged to the solid Victorian upper middle-class, who lived on inherited and well-invested capital, and I don’t think he ever saw resources as problematic.
Of course, as a queer, (well, bi-sexual, just about) he was naturally short-termist. Having descendants makes a difference in one’s perspectives -or it should……
I much prefer his brother, Sir Geoffrey, who saved innumerable lives as a dedicated surgeon, above all in WW1. Maynard used to patronise him dreadfully……
John Maynard Keynes had no children because his wife Lidya had a miscarriage after which she could have no more babies. I also like Sir Geoffrey, and especially Maynard’s father, the eminent economist John Neville Keynes. JMK learned economics as a child by listening to his father talk with other eminent economists, especially Alfred Marshall, Keynes’s mentor. Marshall’s textbook is excellent, much better than textbooks today. On almost every page there is concern for the poor. Marshall was writing in the tradition of moral philosophy as did Adam Smith (professor of moral philosophy and logic) who wrote the immensely popular and highly readable “Theory of Moral Sentiment” in 1759.
Sir Doctor Geoffrey left 4 sons, all of them with wikipedia pages so they must have attained prominence.
Keynes is constructing a bourgeois ‘foundation myth’ of ‘social mobility’ in which everyone is going to end up with the life-style and pre-occupations of aristocrats. It ‘justified’ and reinforced the ‘aspiration’ and application of the workers within capitalism within the perspective an ‘assured’ future of universal prosperity and ideal betterment. It is a schematisation of early industrial era ‘optimism’ about economic and social ‘progress’.
In reality, social mobility has collapsed in USA since the 1980s, along with any growth in productivity, or improvement in living-standards. All ‘mature’ capitalist economies are entirely dependent on labour expansion to grow GDP at all. The ‘American dream’ and any associated foundation myths are long bust in the harsh social reality and in the popular imagination. There is no reviving them now through some ahistorical, quasi-religious posturing.
Optimistic narratives have long given way to concerns about growing social and economic inequalities, job insecurity, social, community and cultural breakdown, neo-imperialist wars, culture wars, ideological instability, social divisions, the erosion of liberties, global warming, planetary degradation and the fragility of the global financial-industry economy, among other things. Keynes is of his time, and likely an ideological reactionary even back then. It now seems quaint to give aristocratic trappings to capitalism.
we have been living on a wedge of debt since the 70s
this why
My standard of living has vastly improved over the past seventy years; everyone I know has a higher standard of living than they did in the past. How many people do you know who have experienced downward social mobility? For more on social mobility, see the excellent introduction to sociology textbook by Horton and Hunt–my favorite sociology text next to “Human Societies” by Nolan and Lenski, a book of macroeconomic sociology that I used for many years; I reviewed and and contributed to the seventh edition of that text, and on the back of the book is a blurb I wrote praising the book.
as I understand it, the average annual input of raw energy into our commercial system over the past century has averaged around 7%. I could be wrong a bit either way, on the exact figure, but not by much
All due to fossil fuel production and use
I’m not a centenarian (yet) but my prosperity has also vastly increased over that period, as yours has. Also that of everyone I know
That is where it came from, not Keynesian economics
Mine as well, okay I purchased the book, but used, need to conserve for my old age.
Dennis L.
i am feeling lesaly so I am going to spell the word in a congruent and sane way.
Why does lesa have to be ‘constructive’? (Goodness that is a long word to have to keep typing.) What does ‘constructive’ mean in the context of lesa? ‘Construction’ is the function of work not of lesa. Would ‘constructive’ lesa not be informal work? Does the ‘problem’ of ‘constructive’ lesa not indicate that not everyone is capable of lesa? Lesa has never been for everyone, and quite possibly it is not to the taste of everyone. Humans have not evolved such that it is, for obvious reasons. Work needs to be done, and that is to the taste of most, otherwise they would be ill-adapted. Quite possibly. Lesa is for the few not for the many. The many use their ‘lesa time’ in attending to themselves, shopping, exercise, recuperation, all functional activities – which is not really lesa, strictly speaking. The first condition of lesa is to be happy doing nothing, and then to do anything because it is fancied, no other reason. If there is a function to it, like writing, then that is incidental. Most who enjoy lesa never produce anything, and that is fine. Lesa is not ‘supposed to be’ constructive, which is the function of work. The idea that lesa needs to be ‘constructive’ is laughable – like saying that work needs to be lesaly. If someone feels that their lesa ‘needs’ to be constructive, then they should probably get a job.
“Constructive” in constructive use of leisure refers to eudaimonia, “human flourishing” as discussed in Aristotle’s “Ethics.” Keynes was a classic scholar and majored in medieval Latin Poetry at Cambridge University.
OK, we have a starting point – sort of. It may help if you explain your understanding of Keynes concept of eudaimonia in some detail and its relation to leisure, and then we can take a look at his schema.
You are quite right that ‘leisure’ is one of the subjects of philosophy. It is tempting to argue that philosophy is itself the only apt pastime for a gentleman, who would never engage in anything so ‘common’ as painting, composing or inventions, which are labourers’ jobs, or in religion, which is for the priestly caste. But let us focus on Keynes and his bourgeois understanding of eudaimonia.
Read the most excellent three volume biography of Keynes. Better yet, read everything Keynes wrote. Start with his “Essays in Persuasion” then read his “Essays in Biography.” Always go to original sources, something I learned at the University of Chicago.
That is not a leisurely reply but a cop out.
Aristotle had an aristocratic understanding of eudaimonia that excludes the mass of humans, who were ‘natural slaves’ according to him, from its possibility. It is an autonomous, self-generated activity, which cannot be ‘marketed’ to the masses or ‘instilled’ through social ‘betterment’. Aristotle inherited a caste view of the human soul from Plato, and eudaimonia is an activity strictly of the aristocratic-philosopher caste.
> Aristotle says that natural slaves cannot achieve eudaimonia, the best kind of human life (Pol. 3.9, 1280a31-4). The reason they cannot do so is that eudaimonia consists in virtuous activity (NE 10.6, 1177a6-11). That places it beyond the scope of technical rationality. To explain an inability to live a virtuous human life, it is necessary to invoke a failure of ‘architectonic’ practical reason. So it is plausible to suppose that this is the kind of rationality that Aristotle denies to natural slaves. His apparently unrestricted formulations are shorthand expressions; there was no point in spelling out qualifications which are entailed by obvious facts about nonGreeks, and which are implied by a context in which only rationality in ethics is relevant. When Aristotle says that a natural slave ‘shares in reason to the extent of understanding it, but does not have it himself’, therefore, he is thinking specifically of practical reason. – Heath, M. (2008) Aristotle on natural slavery, Phronesis: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy, Volume 53 (3), 243 -270.
Aristotle also thought that children and women could not achieve eudaimonia, because they did not have enough freedom to do so. Note that he addressed the problem of poverty by advocating land redistribution. Also, both he and Plato were very concerned with population policy–see especially Plato’s “The Laws.”
Aristotle considered that slaves and women are incapable of eudaimonia not because they lack ‘freedom’ (a bourgeois concept that is ahistorically applied to Aristotle) but because they lack practical wisdom (phronêsis). They are naturally incapable of rational virtue and they can only benefit, in the performance of their natural social tasks, through the habituation of their non-rational, emotional constitution (alogon) of appetite (epithumia) and spirited desire (thumos), which habituation to performance is only very loosely analogous to rational virtue in the Aristotelian sense. Thus slaves and women are conditioned to function as necessary social substrata that allow the pursuit of eudaimonia of the male aristocrats, while kids grow up into their natural social position. Thus they are aligned in their performance to the rational virtue of the aristocrats who consciously implement aristocratic social policies – and not to any rational virtue of their own. Land reform and population control have the same aristocratic context, and they are aimed at the good functioning of the aristocratic society, not at the elevation of slaves and women to eudaimonia, from which Aristotle considered them to be excluded by their very nature.
You are correct. Plato advocated equality for women and that they should be eligible for all leadership positions except strategos, the commander in chief of the military. Why not be elegible for strategos? Because, Plato said, men would not take orders from a woman. Plato’s mother was a remarkable woman, and I suspect that the reason that Plato never married was that no woman could measure up to his mother. Plato was an advocate of marriage and reproduction: When he was eighty years old he danced all night to celebrate the wedding of one of his students; then he lay down and died in the morning.
To be virtuous it is not suffienct merely to act virtuously but to know the sufficient reason grounding the act. Refexive knowledge of this type is exclusively the domain of reason.
Correct. Moreover, women and slaves can ‘follow’ reason, to some extent, but they cannot generate it or truly participate in rational virtue, according to Aristotle, as they simply lack the natural faculty.
Aristotle, like Plato, has a view of the aristocracy in which it performs social functions, like the Romans and the Prussians, who were expected to participate in some way in government. Nietzsche argues that they represent a late stage of aristocratic civilisation, and that the more that the aristocracy takes on social functions, the more it diverges from its true nature. True ‘aristocrats’ are not supposed to perform any social functions, as if they are a means to an end, rather the entirety of society is a means to their end, which is leisure. Thus a well and properly constructed aristocratic society includes a political caste, distinct from the aristocracy, that keeps society functioning without any further functional ‘role’ of the aristocracy, who by definition have no ‘role’ but rather exist as the ‘purpose’ of society.
For Nietzsche, instinct rather than reason is the real guide and means of constructing and maintaining an aristocratic society. In a healthy, early, aristocratic civilisation, each caste has its proper instincts to take its proper place. It suffers no uncertainty or obscurity. ‘Virtue’ is instinctive rather than acquired through training or through conformity to ‘reason’.
Socrates represents a late, decadent stage in the history of Athens, in which instincts have weakened, democracy has appeared on the scene, and thus recourse to ‘reason’ is made to orientate and to ‘repair’ the society. Socrates is a decadent (outwardly horrific by contemporary accounts), and ‘dialectic’ is a decadent substitute for healthy instincts.
Thus the castal breeding of instincts is the only real corrective, and it may well be impossible if the instincts have already been weakened or lost. Genuine, healthy aristocracy arises out of a barbarous stage of conquest, and it is no mean feat to reproduce the original human elements once they are lost.
More likely the ‘cycle’ of initiation must be repeated, usually by ‘chance’, somewhere else, some other time. Existent ‘aristocracies’ are a sham of their former self and ripe for elimination. Barbarism is thus likely the only way ‘forward’.
Nietzsche thus inverts the estimation of ‘reason’ and ‘non-reason’, which he makes ‘instinct’, and social training and ‘barbarism’, which he makes youthful ‘vitality’, in their roles in civilization. He tends to say the opposite of what others have said; thus ‘niet’, denial or negation, the opposite.
His remains a unique and insightful contribution, and certainly a fresh alternative to the dusty old academies. Many ‘anarchists’ and libertarians are drawn to him.
Socrates was a war hero before he became a philosopher; he got every medal Athens offered. Alone on the battlefield he rescued his student, General Alcibiades, then in the face of Spartan opposition he retrieved Alcibiades valuable armor. Socrates, like Plato, was a champion wrestler, and according to Plato at age sixty he could throw anybody. It is arrant nonsense to say that he was decadent.
You are not going to be popular if you just contradict everything that everyone says on here. You cannot discount the degeneracy of Socrates just by his storied battlefield accounts. First you need to understand the basis of Nietzsche’s characterisation of Socrates as a degenerate in Twilight of the Idols, of which his physical appearance was one clear symptom. If you cannot respond with a respectful tone then do not at all, as I do not tolerate rudeness, which is likely a symptom of your own degeneracy. This is your final warning, after which there will be no more exchange between us.
Nonsense! Socrates great enemies were the sophists, lawyers of the day who encouraged everyone to sue everybody for everything. The sophists did corrupt Athenian society by teaching rhetoric embodying clever fallacies to make the weaker case appear the stronger–the fundamental skill of litigation lawyers. Just as our vast surplus of lawyers corrupt U.S. society, the sophists corrupted Athenian society. Note also that Socrates was a hero and model to the later stoics who fought corruption in the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. Socrates was a hero and model for Marcus Aurelius, the last good Roman emperor and great stoic.
Read some philosophy and history. I especially recommend “Rome’s Last Citizen” by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni, a biography of Cato the younger. Socrates was hero and model to Cato the younger, a man who fought Julius Ceasar and who lived a frugal stoic life.
Nietsche had tertiary syphillus which rotted his brain and affected his silly philosophy.
According to Thomas A. Harris, not only am I okay, but you are also okay.
You have expressed zero understanding of Nietzsche’s argument. If you want to criticise his evaluation of Socrates, then first you need to show that you understand it, which you have failed to do. You have not even made a start. 0/10. Philosophy is based purely on the arguments themselves, nothing else – no appeal to ‘authorities’, adulation, and certainly no rudeness or arrogance, has any part in it whatsoever. You botched Aristotle and now you have botched Nietzsche. That is a waste of time. If you want to massage your ego then draw someone else into it, I have no time for your rudeness. It has zero relevance to the subject and indicates your inability to take the subject seriously. This is not an episode of Eastenders.
Socrates was a complete oaf who invented an imaginary world of ‘ideas’ comprised of common opinions that he got from drunken dinner parties. He termed that nonsense ‘dialectic’. Absolutely no one in the modern world agrees with him. He had no traction in Athens and the Academy of Plato was completely taken over by the Pyrrhonic school of Skepticism. He was more of a fantasist than a philosopher, and Athens thought it wise to execute him as a corrupter of youth, especially handsome young men.
Socratic method is fundamental to logic and critical thinking. See the Books by Bill Paul on this topic. Paul was the leader of the critical thinking movement; his symposiums on Critical Thinking and Moral Reform in Education at Sonoma State University were outstanding. He endorsed my book “Economics: Making Good Choices” which was based largely on Pauls thinking. I asked Paul if there is a kind of Gresham’s Law (Bad money drives good money out of circulation.) in educational reform proposals, and he agreed that there was. I am a follower of Mortimer Adler when it comes to educational reform and strongly recommend his three books in which he explains his Paidia program for educational reform.
Do not talk complete rubbish, and do not name drop with me. Aristotle is foundational to logic, not Socrates. The ‘Socratic method’ is complete rubbish, induction based on common opinions. His metaphysics are completely bonkers, and absolutely no one considers him to be either a model of philosophical method or a teacher of sane metaphysics. It is complete rubbish and it has zero value for the modern world.
All Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. Plato was Socrates best student, and Aristotle was Plato;s best student. They agreed on most things. One thing they differed on is the nature of the soul; Aristotle believed the soul dies with the body; Plato’s complex theory of the soul said that it was immortal.. Nevertheless, when Plato lectured all night on the on the nature of the soul, all the students left except Aristotle, who was a spherical genius. Aristotle invented the scientific method, with assitants gathering empirical data. He is also the father of marine biology. You should study Aristotle more than the foolish and trivial Nietzsche. Study Wittgenstein, one of my favorite twentieth century philosophers or study “Morality of Happiness” by Julia Annas. The revival of interest in virtue ethics is the most interesting development in philosophy since 1955. Do your homework.
Again you completely fail to engage critically with the question, here of method and you prattle on about names and their honours. You are entirely superficial and you would get a fail in philosophy for that prattle.
You deliberately lied earlier that Aristotle said that women could not engage in eudaimonia because they lacked ‘freedom’, and you then went on an abusive rant when you were politely corrected.
You lack all intellectual integrity and you are completely devoid of any decency. You are one massive ego trip and you are incapable of approaching any question but on such terms. You will never be capable of anything but superficiality and stale dogma.
You commit the ad hominem fallacy by attacking me rather than my well-documented ideas. Your understanding of philosophy is incomplete and your ideas are out of the mainstream of modern philosophy.
Complete rubbish, it is not ad hominem to point out that you failed to critically engage with the question at hand, which is the sole basis of philosophy. Nor are personal observations apart from questions of method ad hominem, but simple observation.
Never, ever address me again.
Are you Don’s brother?
My full name is Murray Don Millman. I usually go by “Don.” On the Oil Drum my moniker was Don Sailorman, because I have 9,000 hours of experience as a sailing instructor. For my epitaph I want it written, “He helped 2,000 people to learn to sail. I can teach anybody to sail in three afternoons of good wind, and I’ll gladly teach you. Sailing instruction is what I do best; I use the Socratic method.
Dual personality? Which one do I have now – Don or Murray?
Which one has the Cato-esque desire for young boys? I think Don said that… so if you are Murray then you are likely unaware of Don’s Penchant for Pederasty…
And might this be why Murray invented Don? Murray understands that such proclivities … are socially and legally … unacceptable … therefore the Don personality is put forward to shield Murray…
Sailing … young boys like to learn to sail… should we be concerned?
well Eddy—you would be a sailing instructors dream pupil
you bring your own wind
Young, beautiful, and intelligent women love to learn to sail, and I always got my pick of them. Cato the Younger also drank too much wine some nights–so what. Best source on Cato is “Rome’s Last Citizen” by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni.
it’s women who do the picking
the lesson that some men never learn, or choose not to
Many women picked me, because I had the reputation of being the best sailing instructor. Among a thousand students I taught there were only two failures. I could not teach a blind man to sail, and the other one had visual hallucinations from too much LSD, back when LSD was legal.
Don … best sailing instructor… college teacher… reads WSJ – and the Economist… an all round Fabulous Fella!
Tell us more – are you often told how amazing your sense of humour is?
Yes, I have a great sense of humor and will only date women who also have a great sense of humor. I don’t care what they look like or how old they are, but they must be highly intelligent, love conversation, and have a great sense of humor. With my favorite lover when I was 27, I laughed at least a hundred times a day, and so did she. She would not marry me because she didn’t want to have children, and I wanted a large family. She is still alive, still single, still living in Berkeley, and I often think of getting in touch with her again. She is a great cook, loves the movies, and is the most enthusiastic woman for sex I have ever known.
what’s not to like there?
enthusiasm is always a plus
Hmmm…. a bit TMI here…. but since you are in your Big Reveal Phase…. when you were with the woman when you were 27… did she ever bring back fit young women to enjoy your tremendous sense of humour and magnetic personality… you know what I mean?
The reason I ask is….
I met this character once in Hong Kong … he had a very hot Thai girlfriend … Very Hot! — he was a former colonial administrator (police I believe)… and somehow he amassed a great fortune afterwards (no idea how he did that… he was very evasive when asked — so how did you get from that to this — no doubt dirty deals were involved)…. anyway — he was very forthcoming about the Thai girlfriend (considering I had just met him) who he said would go ‘hunting on his behalf’…. and bring back fit young women to the Den….
Did you ever dabble like this?
No I don’t dabble. Sex is good but sex with love is much better. I have dated many beautiful women, including two six foot tall models and a women who was a dead ringer for actress Bibi Andersen ( of Ingemar Bergen films). I have also dated plain women, and they are fine so long as they are intelligent, interesting, and have a great sense of humor.
Any Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Models?
All I get down here is Ardern texting me for a hook up when she’s in town … her donkey-like face puts me off … but it makes for a good story down at the pub….
And I feel a bit sorry for the old goat — it’s not like she can go onto Tinder can she….
And Clarke is apparently busy breeding with the nanny.
W Von Braun told his assistant that the M.I.C is saying that they need funding to protect America against the Communists. When Communism collapses there will be Islamic terrorist attacks and the M.I.C will say that they need funding to protect America against terrorism. When that lie no longer can be upheld, the M.I.C will invent an Alien Invasion. It will be their last card…and it will all be based on lies.
W Von Braun died in 1977.
The MIC is now homing in on ‘Domestic Terrorism’, it seems.
Utterly dangerous people like ‘Covid-deniers’ and ‘Anti-vaxxers’.
The US state is a sick old horse and needs a shot in the head, asap.
No, not a horse – a rabid old dog…….
“Negative rates: Margin pressure could incite more risk-taking among banks…
“Lenders have struggled with low profitability since the global financial crisis, and the introduction of negative rates by the ECB in 2014 has added more pressure to the sector’s performance. Negative interest rates have eradicated the key competitive advantage of banks, namely the benefit of cheap, stable funding in the form of retail deposits.”
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/negative-rates-margin-pressure-could-incite-more-risk-taking-among-banks-65171977
“Our Financial-Crisis Early Warning System Is Broken…
“…the U.S. was much less prepared for the shock of the pandemic than it could have been. A rush to cash triggered runs on certain money-market mutual funds, threatened the flow of credit to everyone from homebuyers to municipalities, and …caused the prices of Treasury securities to fall sharply. The Treasury and the Federal Reserve had to go to extreme lengths and pledge trillions of dollars to restore stability.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-29/our-financial-early-warning-system-is-broken?srnd=opinion&sref=ZtdQlmKR
The Bloomberg article explains at least part of today’s problem:
Right, the Fed and the Treasury have gone to extreme measures to stimulate the economy. Do not underestimate the power of monetary and fiscal policy. My own forecast is for 3% growth in real GDP and 3% rate of inflation over the next two years. I have written a successful textbook in economics: “ECONOMICS: Making Good Choices” and have studied forecasting with Sherman Maisel, an outstanding forecaster and former member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system. For more on forecasting, read Maisel’s outstanding book, “Fluctuations, Growth, and Forecasting” in which he accurately predicted real GDP ten years in advance. He also wrote a good book about his experiences at the Fed. He was my favorite economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
@Don
If Maisel doesn’t relate the economy to thermodynamics in any substantive way, as with other orthodox economists, then he may as well have been a witch doctor interpreting bone formations in a smoking cauldron.
Your forecasts may be accurate or not; either way we’re well past the hocus pocus of economics now and have complex systems science to help us forecast.
p.s. if Maisal “predicted real GDP ten years in advance” somewhere between 1950-2008, it wouldn’t have taken much to seem prescient.
Maisel predicted the real GDP ten years in advance in 1954 in his book “Fluctuations, Growth, and Forecasting.” That was a big reason why Lyndon Johnson picked him for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Also, Maisel was a liberal democrat. He fought the easy money policy of the Fed in the mid and late 1960s, as described in his 1973 book, which I recommend as a good sequel to his “Fluctuations, Growth, and Forecasting.
They both sound riveting.
What about the underlying principles of servicing debt, supply shortages, wages not rising high enough to meet inflation. Yes what you say is true in a vacuum but when you start adding in the complexity of interconnected economies than things start to break down.
Harry,
Bring back the metal only parts of psychic 16 and is a good bet there will be a positive return.
If one is investing money or has money to invest, very difficult to find anything which does other than lose value at a slower rate than everything else. Munger seems correct, next ten years are a very dismal investing environment, printing money will not change that.
Dennis L.
“Bring back the metal only parts of psychic 16 and is a good bet there will be a positive return.”
I doubt it. There is plenty of gold in seawater and on the seafloor right here on earth but we leave it where it is because the process of retrieving and extracting it is more expensive than any profits that could be made from the gold itself.
Harry, back of the envelope, density. Psychic 16 is a drop in the ocean, much less material to process and move, frictionless movement to boot. Thing is about 120 miles in diameter, put it on the ocean floor, say 2 miles deep, 60 square miles on surface, if plumb sides, not much land mass in the Pacific or Atlantic for that matter. Crash it on Mars, make it easy to work on.
“Kelly Kenison-Falkner and John Edmond, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have analysed samples from some of the world’s oceans. They find that in the Atlantic and north Pacific there is just 1 gram of gold for every 100 million tonnes of sea water. ”
“Observations indicate that Psyche has a metal-pyroxene composition, consistent with it having one of the brightest radar albedos in the asteroid belt (0.37±0.09).[6] Its density, 4.0±0.3 g/cm3…”
The thing seems to be mostly Ni and Fe,
“Psyche appears to be an exposed metallic core or a fragment of a metallic core[23] from a larger differentiated parent body some 500 kilometers in diameter.”
That last paragraph is open to debate, it is a guess at this point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Psyche
Dennis L.
“Chip shortages hit Japan and China industrial production hard.
“Japan and China’s manufacturing activities are taking the hit from the worldwide shortage of semiconductors, with both countries reporting declines that might compromise their nascent recoveries.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/chip-shortages-hit-japan-and-china-industrial-production-hard-11625057003
“Land Rover has paused production in Nitra, Slovakia, as a result of the ongoing semiconductor shortage that has blighted the global car industry.
“The factory, which produces the firm’s big-selling Defender and seven-seat Discovery, is the latest Jaguar Land Rover plant to be impacted by the semiconductor (or chip) shortage.”
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry-news-manufacturing/chip-shortage-stops-land-rover-defender-production-nitra
Harry,
Is this a bad thing? Does more cars really make anything better? Perhaps we already have enough of them for a while.
Dennis L.
From an aesthetic and environmental standpoint, fewer cars is indeed an appealing notion – but cars are such a key component of our growth-dependent global economy and its attendant debt bubbles that if too few cars are made and sold we may find ourselves in a deflationary death spiral.
The article mentions that Japan’s auto production fell by 19.4% in May, and that factory output overall fell by 5.6%.
Based on TM post today, discretionary spending is going down due to increasing cost of energy. These falls in auto production are consistent, there will be less consumed. It seems to me part of the issue was lack of investment in plants to make the chips secondary to the virus. This might imply we don’t have sufficient resources to make discretionary items.
Not a joke, I like consistency, at worst it means one is not wrong, perhaps not right.
For me this last post of his and your work give me a paradigm with which to live and invest the last years of my life, what could go wrong?
Still waiting to get a better handle on the virus, it seems like a great deal of hand waving no matter what side one is on.
Dennis L.
all space activities are really discretionary spending which must decrease in the near future.
In the UFO lore they went to the moon. A UFO followed them all the way. They saw giant buildings on the far side of the moon. A luminous UFO sat on the rim when they landed in the sea of tranquility.
Are you saying that all this is a lie? Have they been lying to me all these years? What’s the point of ruining my illusions? Turning me into a disillusioned doomer? We are all going to die anyway!
It’s a question of faith, isn’t it? Do any of us have empirical knowledge that man went to the moon or that UFOs exist? From the perspective of governance, the believability of a particular narrative is far more important than whether that particular narrative is true. We are all creatures of faith and government knows this.
My favorite phrase, uttered by failing secular materialists during the scamdemic, is “I believe in science.” I’ve also seen doctors on TV proclaim “I believe in vaccines.”
Faith steps in wherever knowledge is absent. If secular society raises us to effectively “look over there” and ignore faith and how we apply it, individually and as groups, then we’ll never be able to self-actualize or self-govern.
When was the last time you were consciously aware of investing your faith in something? In that scenario, you didn’t have complete knowledge, you were aware that you lacked complete knowledge, and you consciously chose to invest your faith. Not only that, you didn’t despair in this but rather understood that the investment of faith was a power particular to human beings. Imagine if every single person were that self-aware. They would guard their faith and exercise discernment before investing it in any particular narrative, knowing that where they invest their faith is where power will grow.
In the current incarnation of our human civilization we are a long way from possessing that kind of wisdom. And yet, every day there are narrative peddlers hustling 24/7 for an investment of faith. Most of us aren’t consciously aware of this. Faith is the unseen currency of this world.
“Gunmen take to streets in Lebanese city over economic crisis.
“Gunmen have taken to the streets in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, firing in the air and at times throwing stones at soldiers amid rising anger at power cuts, fuel shortages and soaring prices.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/gunmen-take-to-streets-in-lebanese-city-over-economic-crisis-tripoli-beirut-world-bank-protesters-europe-b1875710.html
“The Lebanese army will start offering tourists helicopter joyrides this week in a bid to boost the coffers of one of the crisis-hit country’s key institutions.”
https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/06/29/lebanon-army-helicopter-joyrides/
“Diapers and rags: Lebanon crisis plunges women into period poverty.
“With prices soaring in crisis-hit Lebanon, Sherine can no longer afford sanitary pads. So instead each month, she is forced to make her own using baby nappies or even rags.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1886521/middle-east
“Animals starve in Lebanon’s zoos as economy crumbles…
“A lion eats around 50 kilograms (110lb) of food a week, costing 100,000 Lebanese pounds – or around $6 at the informal market rate – per kilo. The minimum monthly wage is just 675,000 pounds.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/animals-starve-lebanons-zoos-economy-crumbles-2021-06-29/
Feed them orphans?
As that’s what women always did, is it so bad?
The real problem comes when there are no rags…..
Lebanon does appear to be the state no one wishes to save.
If it was somewhere else, I would think the helicopter joyrides would be to induce someone to be vaccinated.
Lebanon is truly in an awful situation.
‘A bullet a day keeps the power-cut away!’
Old Lebanese proverb.
Reminds me of a friend of my father’s, who atualy shot at the hospital where his wife died…… The police didn’t prosecute, as they deemed it a ‘crime of passion’.
“Worst yet to come for developing economies, BIS warns.
“Developing countries have yet to feel the full economic impact of the coronavirus crisis but will not be able to rely on the world’s leading central banks for support as they scale back their pandemic-era stimulus, the head of the Bank for International Settlements has warned.”
https://www.ft.com/content/ac77e331-8c17-46af-99a9-273d10e8eec5
If developing countries have yet to see the full impact of the coronavirus problems, they truly have a lot if difficulties. More hunger and even starvation.
Developing countries such as India will continue to develop. India has based its growth on cheap coal. There has been no famine in India for decades, and India now exports rice and many other products such as the Royal Enfiield motorcycle with sidecar, which I plan to buy used in October, when used motorcycles are cheap.
But Don .. have you not heard? We are about to go extinct 🙂
Really
I wrote a young adult novel, “The Adventures of C.C. Eggum” about the collapse of civilization caused by three consecutive years of worsening drought. OilCeo of The Oil Drum posted it for me online, and anybody can read it free just by Googling “The Adventures of C.C. Eggum” It’s nice to have things posted online free so anybody can read it. It is written for intelligent seventh graders, but reviewers have told me that it reads like Huckleberry Finn, and I admit to being inspired by “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ” and also by one of my alltime best students, Kari Lawrence, and I named the co-hero Kari Lord, after her fictional character Donovan Lord, named after Donovan Hall where I worked for thirty-one years and where I taught Kari all the courses I taught: Principles of Economics, Introduction to sociology, Social Problems, Logic, Ethics, and Introduction to Philosophy, and also an Honors Course in Interdisciplinary Humanities taught by me and Don Boese (historian and anthropologists, author of four excellent books of local history about notable Itasca County citizens such as C.K. Blandin who founded the Blandin Corporation and gave all his great wealth away to the Blandin Foundation, which is responsible for most of the Best things in Itasca County and also other parts of northern Minnesota. The Foundation now also funds projects in southern Minnesota, though C.K. Blandin intended his charity to go only to northern Minnesota where he made his fortune. The foundation funded many programs at Itasca Community College, including the Honors Program created by my best friend and colleague for thirty years, Don Boese, whose fictionalized character appears in “The Adventures of C.C. Eggum.” as Danny Lee Eggum, His real name is Donald Lee Boese, but in the book I call him Danny Lee Eggum; his mother’s maiden name. I also have a major character, Great Grandfather Eggum, named after the real life Alvin W. Boese, a remarkable man, dropped out of school at age fourteen to work in the St. Paul Stockyards, then went to work for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company and invented unwoven textile masks, which made hundreds of millions of dollars for 3M and made Alvin Boese rich from patent royalties. The Boese family emigrated from Germany to Minnesota after the troubles in Germany of 1848, and they owned a prosperous farm at the corner of Lexington and Larpenteur in St. Paul, where there is now an MGM liquor store and the Bicycle Chain Bike shop where I bought Schwinn bicycles for myself, my children, and my grandchildren, all of whom are avid bicyclists. Bicycles play a big role in “The Adventures of C.C. Eggum.”
“‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect…
“Instead of heading back to the office in the wake of the Covid pandemic, employees may quit instead. In what’s being called the “Great Resignation,” 95% of workers are considering changing jobs, according to a report by Monster. com.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/29/more-people-plan-to-quit-as-return-to-work-plans-go-into-effect-.html
“Few unemployed people are actively looking for jobs.
“There are around 10 million unemployed Americans and over 9 million open positions. But most people aren’t urgently seeking out those jobs… For the first time in decades, workers have the power to be choosy.”
https://news.yahoo.com/few-unemployed-people-actively-looking-093006298.html
The number of retired people jumped in 2020. Also, the number of women staying home with their children jumped in 2020.
Some companies are paying more to try to get more labor, but it isn’t necessarily working.
Note that these trends show that more people have more leisure, just as Keynes predicted in “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren.”
Not in the US.
https://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/
Sociological studies show Americans have increasing leisure; so do the Japanese, who retire at age 55 with good pensions. Keynes said the constructive use of leisure is the permanent economic problem after the temporary problem of scarcity is solved by the application of technological advances. There is more and more automation, and as artificial intelligence is added to robots, work will decrease dramatically and leisure will increase. See also Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” on these topics.
“Keynes said the constructive use of leisure is the permanent economic problem after the temporary problem of scarcity is solved by the application of technological advances.” Technological advances cannot be applied without net (surplus) energy. Since net (surplus) energy is now decreasing, those applications must also decrease.
There is plenty of cheap energy around; it is cheaper than it was in the 1970s. Coal is cheap, oil is cheap, nuclear energy generated electricity in France is cheap, coal to oil in South Africa’s Sasol is cheap. Yergin and Cera are right about the future of oil. I was wrong on the Oildrum when, following Skrebowski, I predicted Peak Oil in 2014.
cheapness of energy is relative to generally affordability
a small average house used to be 4x average wage
now its 10x average wage
a house is just a block of embodied energy which is becoming unaffordable to most
The house that my father bought in White Bear Lake for $4,300 in 1943 is now worth more than a million dollars. It was built in 1880 and built very well for a wealthy St. Paul man who used it for a summer retreat. It is a local landmark, protected by the White Bear Historical Society and has rooms for servants and a servants’ staircase. The only bigger house was the the Davidson House, which had space for three live-in servants, an upstairs maid, a downstairs maid, and a cook. Jed and Ginger Davidson were part of my boyhood gang of friends, which included some of the poorest people and some of the richest people in town, including Butch, who’s father was in an out of jail and an alcoholic, and Billy and Jim; Jimmy was mentally retarded, but his older brother Billy looked after him and would fight any bully who teased him. I once saw him beat up a seventh grade bully who had teased Jimmy when Billy was only in the third grade. I wrote a poem in my memoirs to celebrate the fight.
Have you got any less wholesome stories?
Something like ‘I remember that time we were in a bar and a foreign businessman thought he’d struck gold as he waltzed around with what he thought was a a woman — and was kissing her…. but Fast Eddy and his mate being old Asia hands were able to determine the woman was a tranny freeek…. so Fast goes to the buys mate and says… that’s a tranny freeek your buddy is kissing … he laughs… Fast Eddy says… aren’t you gonna tell him… the guys says ‘f789 him… it will be a funny story to tell when we get back’
One can see how he might have made a mistake… https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/lifestyle/news-transgender-woman-creates-history-as-she-wins-miss-nevada-usa-beauty-pageant-394957
Even with the best of surgery… there are still very odd mannerisms that give them away … kinda like they are trying to hard to act like a woman…
been watching a re run of Crocodile Dundee again?
repeating scenes from it is less than convincing
You are not producing any data to support your contentions, which smack of habituated dogmatism.
My personal experience is that a lot of Japanese retire at 55 because they are forced to. Then they have to wait until 65 until their pension becomes due. And for many of them, the pension is a pittance. Plus the government now deducts the equivalent of around $100 in nursing care premiums from the pension, forcing even seniors of very modest means to pay for nursing care that in all likelihood they are never going to need.
These days if you go to a department store in any big Japanese city, you will find a lot of the rest benches occupied by old people who have come into the store to have a sit down although they have no means or intention of buying very much because they have to skimp and save to get by. They really lower the tone of the establishment, diminishing the luxury shopping experience for the more affluent consumers.
I know a woman who at the age of 74 is living alone and working as a cleaner at several office buildings in order to supplement her pittance and make ends meet. She goes to the supermarket late in the day when prices are reduced on some goods and she can qualify for a box of 10 of the cheapest eggs for 90 yen provided she buys 1,000 yen worth of groceries. Sometimes, the cash register operator takes pity on her and lets her have the cheap eggs while waiving the provision.
I am a man of modest means, but I like good eggs laid by chickens that have a decent amount of space to flap about in, and so I pay 360 yen for a box off ten eggs—that’s four times the price of these cheap battery eggs. You may think me extravagant, but as I said, they are good eggs.
seriously Tim
you should write more and in more detail about life in Japan, a kind of ‘weekly diary’ if you like
most of us have no idea of the realities of life there
I have some stories about nights out in Gas Panic… Roppongi… outstanding place.. filled with fit Japanese girls who are keen on westerners… Norm I think you could even get over telling that oil story… they’d find you amusing
more people have more leisure because of the growth of net (surplus) energy. Was Keynes correct because he knew that, or was he correct in spite of not having the actual reason?
The Wile E. Coyote moment?
“The Looming Stagflationary Debt Crisis…
“We are thus left with the worst of both the stagflationary 1970s and the 2007-10 period. Debt ratios are much higher than in the 1970s, and a mix of loose economic policies and negative supply shocks threatens to fuel inflation rather than deflation, setting the stage for the mother of stagflationary debt crises over the next few years…
“…this slow-motion train wreck looks unavoidable… The stagflation of the 1970s will soon meet the debt crises of the post-2008 period. The question is not if but when.”
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stagflation-debt-crisis-2020s-by-nouriel-roubini-2021-06
“National debt per American piles up after coronavirus, Great Recession and tax cuts… Since the turn of the century, the amount of debt per person has more than tripled.
“The U.S. national debt will soon surpass the levels not seen since World War II and remain elevated for years to come…”
https://eu.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2021/06/30/national-debt-piles-up-after-coronavirus-great-recession-tax-cuts/5312627001/
The debt bubble is a real concern. One quote from Nouriel Roubini’s article:
“At some point, this boom will culminate in a Minsky moment (a sudden loss of confidence), and tighter monetary policies will trigger a bust and crash.”
Roubini also says:
The statement makes it sound like he thinks the situation could go on for years. I suppose we really don’t know.
Delta coronavirus variant surges in Japan, Olympics spike— Pandemic adviser says cases of the mutant strain are rising rapidly and that its progress suggests a new spike will occur just as the Olympics …
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3139428/delta-coronavirus-variant-surges-japan-olympics-spike
Will the Steroid Games be cancelled?
Three weeks before the Olympic Games, and Japan still can’t figure out what to do.
Let’s recall how Buzz reacts when he is shown the leaked footage of him and Neil faking lunar orbit
https://youtu.be/mhTqrSX5N4M?t=129
10:20 mark… Fleming explains why he was convicted of a felony:
https://thefallingdarkness.com/its-a-bioweapon-dr-richard-fleming/
Thanks for the tip about the section at 10;20. Fleming says that even early on, his work was a threat to those making bioweapons. They came after him, and made him look guilty, even though he really wasn’t.
There are many problems with this article, and even if bamboo was this good for building, humans would find a way to (m)uck it up. But if it has remotely comparable strength, earthquake, fire and hurricane advantages to concrete, I’m pushing it as an alternative to concrete. It will take a very long time to influence a critical mass, if that is ever done, but the effort promises an incremental tactical advance in a very long fight to temper building’s onslaught on forestry. It is also certain that diversity of building materials (like with many cases of diversity) works best. And there’s always the bottleneck waiting in the wings. Pushing bamboo is a triage measure.
https://wefunder.com/rizome?fbclid=IwAR20xFu-grqy3z4ul58Dy7Rh6Ha2cLZ_FJDzN-jI2ihxsbcSPzFFbQNO_iA
If this caught on significantly, you could bet that big money would clear what little remain of ancient rainforests (that do incalculable good) to plant monoculture bamboo (just as is done to grow soy or whatever monoculture now). One would almost need to be pushing bamboo forward while pushing it also backward, and while pursuing a sweet spot where bamboo actually sort of works.
Bamboo is a “weed” around where I live. The climate is a little too accommodating. If anyone starts a small section of bamboo, it soon spreads in any direction it can.
So it is supplied in the energy that makes it abundant and sustainable as a building material? And of course, like most everything if we’re to endure a bit longer, gowing it must be managed to the hilt.
okay, Q2 is in the books with quasi bAUlite still going. Some people, mostly in the periphery, had collapsed lives in the past half year. I assume no one posting on the internet has collapsed. Life is not fair. Anyway, June 30th baby, another half year gone by with no economic collapse in the Core and no mass dieoff. Perhaps the CTs just had a bad 6 months. Here’s wishing for 6 more.
Ur going to get wiped out in the next 6 months.
The stock market just closed out its best first half since 1998 which directly preceded the LTCM (Long Term Capital Management) debacle. We also learned back in April that more money poured into stocks since the election than in the prior 12 years combined. Since that time, inflows have continued their record pace – ETF inflows are almost at a new record only six months into the year. What we are witnessing is the ideal recipe for panic meltdown.
We now see that this past month June 2021 officially has all top ten highest option skew values in recorded history going back 30 years. Which from a statistical point of view is a Black Swan outlier event. In a random distribution, the probability that a top ten skew value will appear in a given month over 30 years is 1 in 36 (2.7%). The chance that all ten would be in the same month is .027 to the tenth power: (0.00000000000000027). In other words, “someone” is making massive bets that this gong show is ending.
As a reminder, skew represents deep out of the money option bets on a “Black Swan” market event:
“The SKEW index is a measure of potential risk in financial markets.
SKEW values generally range from 100 to 150 where the higher the rating, the higher the perceived tail risk and chance of a black swan event”
As we see the highest values happen to be the last four trading days of the best half since 1998
Federal Reserve is a digital printing press and a crap securities waste dump. But time is running out for them- the system is screeching towards a collapse. USD was always going to be sacrificed, since they fake the CPI numbers. The end in this insane, corrupt and despicable fraud is in sight. Once in motion, things tend to stay in motion, until they don’t.
By 2025, all major oil fields will be seneca cliffing. Thats about 3 years away. World oil is already short 5M barrels/day by end of 2021.
2022 is going to be much much much worse than 2020-2021.
Gail will be worrying about things other than writing.
6 months to go before off the air.
And then …. The Second Coming…. and yee shall bow down and kiss the feet of Fast Eddy…. your Saviour….
There are on coincidences
“As the slope of implied volatility moves higher, it raises the SKEW Index, which indicates that a Black Swan event is becoming more likely but not that it will actually occur.
In practice the SKEW index has been a poor indicator of stock market volatility. Financial writer Charlie Bilello observed data from the biggest one-day falls in the S&P 500 and the SKEW Index preceding these falls. “Going back to 1990, none of the worst declines had a SKEW Index in the prior month that was within the top 5% of historical values. So, when actual tail risk was present, SKEW did not predict it,” Bilello said. “
“IT’S A BIOWEAPON,” says Dr.. Richard Fleming referring to the virus and the genome of the virus. Dr. Fleming also asserts that new research indicates that the genetic sequences that are in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do not match the source code CoV-2 virus genome, but are spot on with the prion-like domain region which produces what the general public refers to as mad cow disease.
This interview will chill you to the bone, please share it far and wide.
https://thefallingdarkness.com/its-a-bioweapon-dr-richard-fleming/
A bioweapon? So it really is serious, unlike how some here are trying to characterise it.
This is not new – Luc Montagnard and Bossche have asserted similar. LM is a particularly heavy hitter being a nobel prize winning virologist.
It doesnt take a nobel prize to work this out… when you know that that vast majority of people who have died from covid were already old/sick and near death….
If this is what they say it is — why not only vaccinate the at-risk?
CovIDIOTS are unable to answer that… I have asked a few.
Goy really are f789ing stoooopid.
The WSJ had an article on the opinion page, pointing out that the particular sequence found in the DNA could not happen in nature.
It was designed to be a bioweapon, but how devastating it is as a bioweapon is debatable. We haven’t yet witnessed the long-term consequences of either the vax or the virus in people who’ve been injected or infected. Both contain the spike protein, and the spike seems to be the main harm-inflicting component. What we do know is that some people drop dead from it on short order but the vast majority don’t suffer serious short-term problems.
If so many Goy are getting f789ed up by the Injection in the short term… just imagine what surprises are in store for the longer term!
This obituary should cheer a lot of people up!
A statement from the family of Donald Rumsfeld:
“It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. At 88, he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico. History may remember him for his extraordinary accomplishments over six decades of public service, but for those who knew him best and whose lives were forever changed as a result, we will remember his unwavering love for his wife Joyce, his family and friends, and the integrity he brought to a life dedicated to country.”
I reckon he will be best remembered for 9/11, the War on Terror, and for known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns.
And for me, one of those known unknowns surrounding Rummy, is did he get the jab, and if so, which flavor?
“The cause of death was multiple myeloma, said Keith Urbahn, Mr. Rumsfeld’s spokesman.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-rumsfeld-architect-of-invasions-of-iraq-and-afghanistan-dies-at-88-11625082427
That’s interesting, because according to myeloma.org:
“Should I get the COVID-19 vaccine?
The IMF strongly recommends that patients with multiple myeloma (MM), smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM), or monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) receive a COVID-19 vaccination with the Pfizer or MODERNA vaccines, whichever is available. These vaccines offer excellent benefits, and in general, have very limited and brief side effects or toxicities. As of now, the efficacy of these vaccines far outweighs any toxicity concerns.”
So perhaps, Rummy did. Let’s chalk this one up to the vax, provisionally of course.
I’ll remember him best for his “lizard” interview with Louis CK:
I live by Rummy’s Rule –
“If you want it to move and it won’t move….use WD-40.
If it moves and you don’t want it to move…. use duct tape.”
The greedy ageing zombies creating false stories to get more when there is less and less. That is the way it often looks to me.
Margaret and I are planning to visit Portugal in August. Anyone see a down side? CV test before flying on both sides. We are not vaxxxed. 🙂
I would research the best nasal hack/spray/ointment solution to guarantee you pass the tests.
++++++
Greaaaat choice!
In covidic terms you only need to show at the airport a negative test performed 48 or 72h earlier (depending on the type of test), and you’re ready to move around the country at will. The mask is not obligatory in the streets except and where it is impossible to keep the known holly six feet distance that separates health from death. I ve never used a mask outdoors (but I am a villager who rarely leaves his county) and I’m afraid that towns and cities are full of masked donkeys, hope you dont mind!
(Personally, the sight of human foolishness has become so depressing that I don’t feel like leaving home anymore. I make the caveat though that I was already a huge misanthrope before the current masquerade, and everybody knows that misanthropes are the poorest tourist promoters! 🙂 Now trying to put myself in the shoes of a tourist promoter: I hope you like PT, that besides being variously beautiful and peaceful is also known as the most important little country on the entire solar system (and I’d challenge to a duel any silly person who claimed otherwise!)
A couple of months ago, Taiwan experienced a big spike in Covid-19 cases, after months with no domestic transmission. A “soft lockdown” was imposed, with masks required outdoors and in other public places. We were getting 200-300+ new cases per day. For the last couple of weeks the numbers have gone down to under 100 per day, so I guess we are getting it under control. I suppose it is conceivable that the reduction in Covid cases had nothing to do with the preventive measures taken, but come on, this is as close to a controlled experiment that real life ever gets.
Bei,
how many deaths per day? Cases are well known to be easily manipulated (simply by changing the amount of people tested with the ridiculously flawed PCR test).
You are a true believer so you must support any and all measures required to stop Covid, right?
Would you let old people die of dehydration to stop Covid?
Would you fire doctors that question the MSM?
Would you send people to concentration camps if they are “diseased” and a danger to the state?
Like you I can’t stand the sight of the imbecile masked-ones, and mostly stick to the countryside, or the open street, and I won’t go to the beautiful University museum and gallery here now it’s open once again. I never thought that would happen.
How can one enjoy art in such conditions?! Plus, pre-booking and giving one’s name and address are now mandatory – outrageous!
Luckily, I’ve been there so often that I can take a tour of the rooms in memory alone.
It must be hell for the attendants, in masks from 8.30am to 5.30-6pm. The cheap-skate University gets them to clean and dust the rooms before opening.
The real genius of the Great Re-set is that all of this is being done by domestic ‘national’, governments: if these rules were imposed by foreign invaders it would surely provoke a general resistance. Although I suppose one could say that the Rothschilds are in fact foreign……
I rode the ski lift with a CovIDIOT today … she spewed the usual sound bites… finishing up with we need a Great Reset… and we need everyone to get vaccinated…
Before hopping off I said — have you heard about Seychelles – most vaccinated country in the world… big surge… Big Surge …. she says I hadn’t heard … is it the Delta???
Haha … stay safe!!!! …. then I sped to the bottom with my backwash nearly putting some old guy over… he approached after and was none too pleased… telling me to be careful… I wanted to say but I was trying to get away from a CovIDIOT… instead apologized and said I’d slow down…
Exactly, Xabier. The astuteness was in using somewhat trustworthy entities such as national governments, scientists and medical professionals to carry out their plan. After all, most people trust their doctor and believe in science or in the politicians of their favorite party.And if to these authority figures we add journalists, the religious leaders and the show business clowns, it’s almost understandable that an entire people is showing in their face the conviction that 2+2=9 if the authorities say so. But surely is a most depressing sight.
It is dismaying, JMS.
I have the family reputation of being a cynic, but I never realised just how much I’d over-estimated humanity in general until this Pandemic came along.
The jump from ‘Let’s vaccinate the weak and old’ to ‘Let’s jab the whole planet, even children, and even then no ‘normal’ for you, ever again, suckers!’ should have woken every one up, but no…..
I see now that the expected attack on private property (Own Nothing Be Happy!) has started here and there: ‘housing inequality ‘ has to be ‘tackled like Covid’ according to the Irish government. ‘Like Covid’?!!!!
And the UK Gov. seeking to impose very expensive Green standards on housing, which will make ownership an impossible burden for many.
Keep your spirits up! I’m reading more poetry than I have in years, an antidote to this age of imbecilic slogans…..
Xabier, a poem that deals with a pressing theme in our days: the illusion that somehow it is possible to live with the tyrant. As a Pole, Z. Herbert had some experience of this.
The Return Of The Proconsul
I’ve decided to return to the emperor’s court
once more I shall see if it’s possible to live there
I could stay here in this remote province
under the full sweet leaves of sycamores
under the rule of sickly nepotists
when I return I don’t intend to commend myself
I shall applaud in measured portions
smile in ounces frown discreetly
for that they will not give me a golden chain
this iron one will suffice
I’ve decided to return tomorrow or the next day
I cannot live among vineyards nothing here is mine
trees have no roots houses no foundations the rain is glassy flowers smell of wax
a dry cloud rattles against the empty sky
so I shall return tomorrow the next day in any case I shall return
I must come to terms with my face again
with my lower lip so it knows how to check scorn
with my eyes so they remain ideally empty
and with that miserable chin the hare of my face
which trembles when the chief of guards walks in
of one thing I am sure I will not drink wine with him
when he brings his goblet nearer I will lower my eyes
and pretend I’m picking bits of food from between my teeth
besides the emperor likes courage of convictions
to a certain extent to a certain reasonable extent
he is after all a man like everyone
and already tired by all those tricks with poison
he cannot drink his fill incessant chess
this left cup is for Drusus from the right one pretend to sip
then drink only water never lose sight of Tacitus
take a walk in the garden and return when the corpse has been removed
I’ve decided to return to the emperor’s court
I really hope that things will work out somehow
(Translated by Czeslaw Milosz)
Excellent poem; the deepest truths are in poetry; I read a poem a day and have written some myself. I try to model my life on that of the Roman stoics–especially Cato the younger who fought Julius Ceasar and lived a very frugal life–went barefoot all year round and wore a simple toga in the style of the early Roman Republic. One thing the ancients–especially Aristotle–got right was the importance of poetry. See also Mortimer Adler’s “Six Great Ideas” in which he discusses poetic truth. Mortimer Adler is my favorite twentieth century philosopher, and I’ve read all his books and had discussions with him. He was an Aristotelian and wrote the excellent “Aristotle for Everybody,” which was originally titled “Aristotle for Children” on the seventh grade level.
Thanks, Murray. I think stoicism is the highest (or deepest) point that moral philosophy in the West has ever reached (although I prefer it with a Senecan flavor), and always believed that voluntary genteel poverty was the price to pay for freedom. (And fortunately, our masters are generously creating the conditions for us all to be “happy in 2030”, having zero privacy and owing nothing. 🙂 )
Dunc Norm Mike would surely be considered Above Average in terms of a Goy…. and they’ve all been Injected…
The situation is obviously … Beyond Salvage.
So it begins?
Leaked material from the Classified UFO Report.
The US has cracked anti-gravity. When did we crack gravity? Is gravity some form of magnetism? Do we even know what magnetism really is?
I can say many things…but I don’t really know anything.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E5JJKxPXEAEQnK5?format=jpg&name=900×900
Well , then send miners to Psyche so some people here can be really happy
Whoop whoop!
anti-gravity propulsion what does that mean? I will believe it when I see it.
this leak looks even less credible than the embarrassssing totally failed Canada leak.
Yep and there is a helicopter buzzing around Mars right now….
Isn’t it a bit odd that we get both Covid (a bad flu passed off as the plague)… and UFOs… right after shale oil peaked?
Funny how when Buzz was shown this in Astronauts gone wild — his comment was ‘where did you get this — if you make this public I will sue you’… hmmmm….
https://youtu.be/bdQHKf48Mfw?t=1921
Where did he say that?
” . . . if you show this publicly you’re open
01:49
for a lawsuit . . . ” hmmmm
Astronauts gone wild… watch the last bit .. he says he’ll sue if they make it public hahaha in another part he punches the guy in the face
it takes a serious level of Id iot to have watched both those docs and still think we’ve been to the moon
USD surprises up 2.6% in June, best month in over 4 years. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/30/forex-markets-dollar-jobs-federal-reserve-monetary-policy.html
Uri Geller is a life time Experiencer. He attributes his talents to the phenomenon.
After the UFO report he started to talk: “The government knows a lot more. W Von Braun invited me to NASA, gave me a piece of metal from a UFO crash to hold and showed me alien bodies. My true mission has been hidden. We are communicating with E.T.”
Uri is famous for bending spoons, so this is his response to everyone who calls him a trickster and a fraud:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Exe6xBHWUAA35gu?format=jpg&name=900×900
Uri’s greatest talent isn’t for spoon-bending, it’s for self-promotion.
Well, he *did* get referenced on “The Matrix”!
I re-watched this movie last night – I am sure that you have all seen it.
Thanos seems to have a ‘CRP’ – a ‘compassionate reduction plan.’
I will be re-watching pt. 2 tonight, where everyone comes back – that is OK then, problem solved?
Ebony Maw: “Hear me and rejoice! You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No… it is salvation. The universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile… for even in death, you have become children of Thanos.”
Thanos: “Little one, it’s a simple calculus. This universe is finite, its resources, finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting.”
Conditioning, so that the supine masses passively accept their repression and then extermination as necessary, in favour of the Bio-Digital MIC.
Is the term “Compassionate Reduction Plan” ever used? It seems like such a phrase would be more acceptable to people than “Compassionate Extinction Plan.” Humans have made it through any number of bottlenecks before. It is quite likely some can make it through this bottleneck as well.
The phrase is not used in the movie, and I have not otherwise encountered it. I coined it as an analogue of ‘Compassion Extinction Plan’ that some posters use on here. I agree with you that it is probably a more helpful and appealing phrase than CEP, but that is not saying much, really. Thanos is an interesting metaphor, but he is yet presented as the arch cosmic ‘bad guy’ – and no kind of ‘plan’ is likely to be ‘popular’. Some ‘plans’ might perhaps be presented in a ‘less unpopular’ manner, though that is doubtful.
Criticisms of Thanos’ measures seem to miss the point that he is an artistic metaphor of a severe dilemma, he is not supposed to offer a detailed, satisfactory and acceptable ‘program’ of reform. The whole point is that it is a severe dilemma with no obvious social ‘solution’. The movie seems to have stripped away much of the extraneous silliness of the character in the comics, about ‘love of death’ and all that nonsense, which simply cast him as a peculiarly deficient personality, and thus detracted from the seriousness of his function as a metaphor of a genuine dilemma.
As Thierry says, the dilemma is left hanging in plain sight, and the movie thus implicitly challenges ‘moral’ assumptions about that particular ‘bad guy’. It is an interestingly balanced approach to the dilemma, which juxtaposes common human dispositions about ‘care’ and ‘responsibility’, and common assumptions about ‘morality’, with the dilemma in a non-judgemental way that leaves it unresolved by any over-arching ‘perspective’. Humans have not necessarily evolved with instincts adequate to address the peculiar dilemma.
The point is to let the audience think about it. As such, the movie is an insightful and even pedagogical experience – but obviously not for everyone. It obviously has a topical, some would say urgent, theme, given the pre-occupation with global warming, natural and resource degradation, and the perhaps perceived instability of the global financial-industrial economic system since 2008. Other themes like global poverty and inequality can also get tied in with the theme of finite prosperity.
Personally I would give the movie 10/10, but then not everyone ‘experiences’ it in the same way.
A technically amazing movie. The script can be summed up as you say it. The truth hidden in plain sight.
Not the first time in history though, we are about to live a situation somehow similar to the bronze age collapse !
If I was conspiratorially-inclined, I’d say calling the last movie ‘Endgame’, and releasing it in 2019 just a few months before the emergence of COVID would be one hell of an ‘F you’ to civilisation before any CEP attempt.
Thanos has been appearing in the comics since the 1970s. His motivation there is not so much ecological (which is stupid, because his plan from the movies makes zero sense) as religious / emotional: he is in love with Death, personified as a robed woman. You might say that Thanos is the original Incel.
(Thanos has a brother named Eros. Before you ask, writer Jim Starlin had been taking some kind of community college course in Freudian psychology, and I guess he liked the names.)
it would have been way cool if that was the last big movie ever, but it seems people still have strong desires to make lots of money. “Movies are back! F9, the latest installment in the Fast and Furious franchise, shattered pandemic box office records this weekend with a $70 million debut—the biggest box office opening since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in December of 2019. A Quiet Place Part II had held the previous pandemic record, raking in $48.3 million during its opening weekend in late May.”
It’s like the writers didn’t even care how dumb this was. And I say this as a lifelong fan of the Avengers comics.
Student we can replace coal fired furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
Thanks Ed ! Can you tell me, if present, where are located in the world steel industrial furnaces with electric arc at the moment?
I ask you because I just want to understand better the issue.
Many thanks.
check you volvo
https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/282789/volvo-cars-is-first-car-maker-to-explore-fossil-free-steel-with-ssab
to make steel start with iron ore next reduce the ore that is pull off the oxygen by applying high temperature while covered by a reducing gas like hydrogen next add some carbon then you have steel
it all comes down to the cost of the energy to heat it and the complexity to cover it from exposure to oxygen
Somehow, all of the equipment to do this new process has to be built. The hydrogen needs to me separated out and stored. I would hope this process is tested on a very small scale, before it is scaled up. Unless the price is affordable, no one will buy the cars.
Roads and bridges are almost as big a problem as cars. This problem must be considered as well.
I would also post out that transporting goods in trucks and trains is perhaps a more urgent issue than building cars for private citizens.
yes like so much now it is not a technical question it is an economic question.
I would also post out that transporting goods in trucks and trains is perhaps a more urgent issue than building cars for private citizens.We need more canals.
It is my understanding that the electric arc furnace works if the major input is scrap steel. If the major input is iron ore, then the usual way of making steel is with a blast furnace and coking coal.
This is an article from Australia about China’s steel industry. China’s steel industry is the largest in the world. https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2010/dec/pdf/bu-1210-3.pdf
China’s Steel Industry
In the section Steelmaking in China, it says:
Thank you for the information.
We are in the middle of an important transformation in Italy of the famous steel furnace called ex Ilva di Taranto, which is going to receive a big European investment to transform it, first, with gas energy and then, they say, with hydrogen.
They want to reach 6 million tons of annual steel production.
It is difficult to understand if it is something feasible and if in any part of the world it already exists.
They have received a partial no from EU, because EU doesn’t consider ecological to produce hydrogen from gas, but it will be considered acceptable if it will arrive from water.
Anyway first they have to make the passage to gas.
The subject is not easy to follow, but It will be interesting to see its development.
https://bari.repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/06/14/news/ex_ilva_cingolani_per_taranto_strada_e_gas_e_poi_idrogeno-306004720/
https://www.dmove.it/news/ue-l-idrogeno-blu-non-e-ecologico-stop-anche-ai-fondi-per-la-riqualificazione-dell-ex-ilva
For some mind boggling numbers and charts, see the occasional post by Wolf Richter about global iron and steel production:
https://wolfstreet.com/2021/06/03/global-crude-steel-production-stalled-in-2020-but-china-blew-socks-off-rest-of-the-world-usa-production-plunged/
Let me belt out a FE HAHA HA Haaaaaa…
Canada weather: Dozens dead as heatwave shatters records
Wed, June 30, 2021, 11:29 AM·6 min read
Dozens of people have died in Canada amid an unprecedented heatwave that has smashed temperature records.
Police in the Vancouver area have responded to more than 130 sudden deaths since Friday. Most were elderly or had underlying health conditions, with heat often a contributing factor.
Canada broke its temperature record for a third straight day on Tuesday – 49.6C (121.3F) in Lytton, British Columbia.
The US north-west has also seen record highs – and a number of fatalities.
Experts say CC is expected to increase the frequency of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves. However, linking any single event to GW is complicated.
We likely cannot fix climate change. We need to learn to be more resilient.
Perhaps cities with heat waves need places where people can go and get sprinkled with water, to cool off. Otherwise, think of this a part of the population reduction plan.
It’s just weather, Herbie.
And records are made to be broken.
It’s cooler than usual in the American Southwest centered on New Mexico and it is unusually cold in southern and eastern Brazil.
Experts say people who guffaw whenever they hear about a spot of unusual weather are suffering from meterological-news-induced pseudobulbar affect, a nervous system condition that can make crying and laughing uncontrollable.
https://realclimatescience.com/2021/06/yes-climate-change-made-it-worse/
The global temperature has increased by 1.2 C since industrialization, according to the World Meteorological Organization. A 2019 report commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada found Canada is warming twice as fast, with the highest rates occurring in the North, the Prairies and northern British Columbia. And temperatures in the Arctic are increasing three times the global rate.
“That doesn’t sound like very much, but it shifts the whole system. And so when you get big spikes, they get higher,” said Deborah Harford, executive director of Adaptation to Climate Change, a policy planning initiative at Simon Fraser University.
As we are seeing with Covid … if you tell people what you want to hear… and give them grants to reach certain conclusions…. you will hear what you paid to hear…
Here’s an in depth explanation of how things work… and they do work… because you are completely captured by the GW BS. The Goy are simple … much like dogs…
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2021/06/28/covid19-the-final-nail-in-coffin-of-medical-research/
A 12 degree Fahrenheit overstatement. This is sad, Herbie. Truly sad. Sad to the point of being shameful.
“Hmm, one wonders how an “error is data display” turns 108F into 120F. As far as I know the media has not reported this error.
It is often said that “weather is not climate” and that’s true. It is particularly true in this case.
The heat wave was entirely a weather pattern issue, not a climate issue. A large high-pressure dome (sometimes called a heat-dome) over the PNW is not unheard of, but this one was particularly strong. In fact, it was a result of a perfect storm of weather pattern confluence.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/06/30/major-media-fail-on-reporting-the-pacific-northwest-heatwave/
Climate and Environment
Earth is now trapping an ‘unprecedented’ amount of heat, NASA says
New research shows that the amount of heat the planet traps has roughly doubled since 2005, contributing to more rapidly warming oceans, air and land
Washington Post
You are posting that as an act of sarcasm?
Let me do similar:
– Ivermectin is not useful in treating covid
– Man landed on the moon
– Saddam has WMD and must die
– Sweden’s response to covid has been a disaster
– the US govt was not complicit in 911
– nurse testifies that Iraqi troops murdered babies in Kuwait
– Putin controls Trump
I could spend all day on this … but I’ve got other plans…
No-one yet knows if global heating created the conditions for the heat dome (similar to how it can cause the jet stream to slow down). I’m sure that seasoned AGW deniers will immediately leap in to claim this has nothing to do with climate change whilst climate scientists will carefully go about their attribution research though some have already said that climate change, whilst probably not causing the heat dome, will make such conditions worse and more likely.
But I guess we could just keep our fingers crossed.
What is funny about this GW bs … is that the groopies moan and wail and insist ‘they’ do something …
Then they trot down to Walmart and buy a new computer… a new phone.. a new plastic barrel… they jump on a plane to visit granny… they refuse to take the bus…
And if you point this out to them … they get angry … and they insist that whatever they buy is absolutely necessary … while others engage in conspicuous consumption …
And then they return to bleating on about how ‘they’ are doing NOTHING to save us!
It’s rather funny.. actually. stoooopid goy
https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2019/12/Screen-Shot-2019-12-13-at-9.13.21-PM.png
Gail ,
This article says Saudi oil is profitable at $74 but you often say it is much higher than that. Could you please explain that and future prospects for the kingdom going forward?
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-economic-crisis-oil-coronavirus-debt-vision-2030
It probably costs something like $15 per barrel to pull most of the current oil out of the ground in Saudi Arabia. It is a low number, far below $74 per barrel (or the $77.60 per barrel, mentioned in the link Sam gives).
The big issue is that Saudi Arabia has very few sources of funds to operate a very large government. In recent years it has been borrowing money. Even with a significant increase in debt, there have been many articles about Saudi Arabia not paying its contractors for the work they are doing. Saudi Arabia has tried to cut back its budget as much as possible. Also, I am sure that reinvestment in new fields, and in new refineries, is lagging as well. We can also see from Sam’s link that oil exports in barrels are down, population is up, and Mecca visitors are way down. GDP per capita is falling, too.
If oil is practically Saudi Arabia’s only resource, it desperately needs to get oil prices up. Then it can tax the oil more highly, so that it has funds to operate the company. A few years ago, the calculation produced a price of $100 or so per barrel. The trends are all in the direction of this amount needing to rise, rather than fall. The $74 or $77.60 estimate is simply a low ball estimate, so the country doesn’t look too desperately bad off.
Thanks Gail, I didn’t think that they had to make it a little more edible for the mainstream. I’ve always been curious about break even on oil In different regions of the world. A lot of people just think that Saudi Arabia can just open the tap.
Saudi Arabia really needs the price a whole lot higher. They keep thinking that if they reduce exports, it will drive prices up. It doesn’t really work that way, at least not very well. By the time prices are high enough for oil exporters, they are way to high for consumers.
DÉBORA ÁLVARES
Mon, June 28, 2021, 7:45 PM
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree Monday to dispatch Brazilian soldiers to the Amazon in a bid to curb surging deforestation, just two months after withdrawing troops from the region and days after his Environment Minister resigned.
The decree published in the country’s official gazette said soldiers would go to the states of Para, Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Rondonia through the end of August. It didn’t provide details about the number of troops to be deployed nor the cost of the operation.
Vice President Hamilton Mourão told reporters earlier this month that the deployment could be extended beyond two months with the arrival of the dry season, when people burn forest to clear land.
Amazon deforestation has been ticking upwards for several years, but surged since the 2018 election of Bolsonaro, who repeatedly called for development of the rainforest. The destruction has elicited an international outcry and, more recently, an effort by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to urge Bolsonaro to get tough on illegal logging.
Biden Administration lecturing on logging…. please
But trees are “renewable.” Many people would consider cutting down existing trees and planting (or promising to plant) another tree elsewhere solves the problem.
If people are getting poorer and poorer, the natural result will be more deforestation, because trees are our most readily accessible energy source.
According to WRM, the corporation not only wants the wood for its paper mills, it also intends to break into the lucrative energy market by selling the pulped trees to power plants and wood pellet manufacturers in Europe. The EU’s renewable energy policy promotes the use of wood as fuel.
The eucalyptus monocultures are a disaster for the Cerrado and its inhabitants. Very few other plants or animals can survive there. The plantations also ruin the soil and local water resources. Their enormous water consumption depresses the water table and dries out bodies of surface water.
Local inhabitants are also being displaced. Suzano is exploiting the fact that many farmers and rural communities do not hold official titles to the land they have farmed for generations. The government is going over the heads of the traditional communities and awarding land concessions to the company.
Please support the inhabitants of the Cerrado and speak out to the Brazilian authorities by signing the WRM petition
https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/940/brazil-trading-nature-for-eucalyptus
Trees are renewable but forest ecosystems less so. Clearing forest destroys habitat and it won’t come back by planting a tree somewhere else (or even in the same place).
For some this is the prelude Fast Eddy has been crying about for YEARS..
Worsening power cuts show depth of Sudan’s economic challenge
Khalid Abdelaziz
Wed, June 30, 2021, 8:49 AM
* Students struggle to study by candlelight
* New financing may help tackle frequent blackouts
* Longer term, renewables may provide answer
By Khalid Abdelaziz
KHARTOUM, June 30 (Reuters) – For 17-year-old Wa’ad, frequent power cuts in Sudan’s capital have meant struggling to revise for secondary school exams by candlelight on many nights.
The increasingly frequent blackouts which often last all day are hitting families and businesses in Khartoum and other Sudanese cities already facing 380% inflation and shortages of petrol, bread and other imports.
They have piled pressure on a transitional government that has won international praise for economic reforms and on Tuesday secured a deal for extensive debt relief, even as living conditions have continued to deteriorate.
After inheriting an economy in crisis with extremely low foreign reserves, the government has no immediate solution for the problem, one official told Reuters.
Authorities cannot import enough fuel or pay for maintenance and spare parts for power stations, said the government official, who asked not to be named.
Sudan’s poorly resourced hospitals have not been spared as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials have acknowledged that outages have caused oxygen shortages and deaths.
Only about one third of Sudan’s nearly 45 million population has access to power, but demand for highly subsidised electricity is growing by an average of 11% yearly, faster than most African nations, according to a 2019 World Bank report.
The country faces an average deficit of 1,000 megawatts, said Osman Dawalbeit, general manager at the government-owned Sudanese Electricity Holding Company, noting rising fuel costs.
The energy minister said in March that Sudan’s power stations, designed to produce 4,000 megawatts, were operating at just 45% capacity.
About half of Sudan’s electricity comes from burning fuel and half from hydropower.
What till the lights go out…
Sudan is well past peak oil. This is the IEA’s chart of Sudan’s energy consumption by type.
https://www.iea.org/countries/sudan
“Biofuels and waste” is one of the IEA’s standard categories. In the case of Sudan, it no doubt means tree and other biomass burned for cooking food and for other processes. If there was any waste burned for this purpose, it would be included here as well. Cultures that burn dung for fuel find dung in this category.
There is also a chart of Sudan’s oil production at the same link, if you toggle the right bars. It shows a steep drop in production.
https://www.iea.org/countries/sudan
Another chart shows that oil is increasingly burned to provide electricity, because hydroelectric doesn’t provide enough.
https://www.iea.org/countries/sudan#overview
For anyone who has not read or does not understand the “leaked” (last Wednesday) IPCC report this analysis may be helpful.
121 degrees in Canada!!!!
See, the models are all wrong!
I vote harp, throw another shove in the Rayburn.
“Well that was fast! Initial investigations have shown that the 120°F temperature in Renton was in fact an error in data display. The actual temperature at that site was 108°F. We will still be investigating the other two observations. ”
https://twitter.com/NWSSeattle/status/1409985346260004864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1409985346260004864%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwattsupwiththat.com%2F2021%2F06%2F30%2Fmajor-media-fail-on-reporting-the-pacific-northwest-heatwave%2F
thanks Tim that makes a difference
I just read that the Star Danish footballer who collapsed on the pitch and who went into cardiac arrest supposedly had taken the “Jab” two days earlier. No mention of that by the MSM.
Please add a link to this news. Because every media has denied so far. Thanks
Yes, what is the source? This fact-check claims that Eriksen didn’t have the jab and provides sources:
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/06/scicheck-soccer-stars-collapse-was-unrelated-to-covid-19-vaccine/
Fact Check sites hahahahaha…. Funny how they always come to the conclusion that any conspiracy theory is fake… almost like someone set up the Fact Check sites for the purpose of fooling the MOREons who read them.
First comment of day, last comment, work to be done.
1. Yes, tongue in cheek, sometimes it is so dark here one needs to be an optimist.
2. Complexity? Earth is incredibly complex, complex to the point where most of it we don’t understand. E.g. many have predicted things would blow up at some past date, here we are, things are still working and working better for almost everyone in many measures. Last time a meteor hit, dinosaurs went extinct, life moves on.
4. Choices are never easy, change is seemingly always painful; failure to change can be painful. Think being Jewish in Germany, say 1939, was a time to leave everything and move very quickly.
5. As for space, we are there, we live there, we have been to the moon and it looks like we will return. Watch the launch of the large SpaceX rocket, if that makes it by even the third try we are off to the planets.
6. Every mineral on earth is in space, a frictionless environment. Most will scoff, but why are there so many hydrocarbons in space? Why is everyone so convinced the were made by plant life on earth? Reminds me or the sixties, everyone looked at continents and saw they more or less fit together. Someone came up with continental drift, man did he take heat. Titan is hydrocarbon rich, no plants.
7. Running out of energy is a blessing, we cannot physically heat the earth any more, the earth cannot radiate the waste heat quickly enough. We are the frog in the pan, turn off the burner.
8. Hope, yes, what else is there? Have a dream, one that is within one’s capabilities, go for it, fail, rinse and repeat. Have the courage to fail, it is very embarrassing and hard on the ego.
9. We are eggs in search of a chicken, this seems to be some sort of basic law of the universe. For the universe, need some Fe, blow up a star and blast it into space, waste is not a problem with the system, it is a feature.
10. Some wonder about God, well earth is pretty unique, it took a very large universe to make it, maybe God did so and has invited us to come and pay a visit.
Dennis L.
10. It took a very large universe but a creator god wouldn’t need any universe.
Picking up on Dennis L.’s discussion below:
Fertility rates closely correlate with family income, in USA and around the world. It remains true in USA that the poorest have the most kids and the richest have the fewest, with a near uniform gradation within those poles. It may be true however that the trend is reversed at the extreme with the very richest households, earning $500,000 or more, have more kids than those earning $200,000.
It is tempting to interpret the data as indicating that Nature (if you will) is not seeking to reinforce the current demographic structure – rather it is demographically reducing all classes bar the lowest and the very highest, as if it were aiming at a bipolar stratification – a small elite and a lowened (I had to check that is a word) mass. I would need more historical data to put this into perspective.
Check the graphic here:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/241530/birth-rate-by-family-income-in-the-us/
> Birth rate by family income in the U.S. 2017
Published by Statista Research Department, Mar 1, 2021
In 2017, the birth rate in the United States was highest in families that had under 10,000 U.S. dollars in income per year, at 66.44 births per 1,000 women. As the income scale increases, the birth rate decreases, with families making 200,000 U.S. dollars or more per year having the lowest birth rate, at 43.92 births per 1,000 women.
Income and the birth rate
Income and high birth rates are strongly linked, not just in the United States, but around the world. Women in lower income brackets tend to have higher birth rates across the board. There are many factors at play in birth rates, such as the education level of the mother, ethnicity of the mother, and even where someone lives.
Nice research, I stand corrected, MSM at first approximation seems to be incorrect.
Dennis L.
Not in Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Guess they are not part of the world.
Interesting, can you direct us to sources for your claim?
Mr. Pool posted a picture of colourful dandelions, which gave an association to different Corona virus variants. Turns out that dandelion leaf extract blocks ACE2 receptors so that the virus and its variants can’t infect the cells. Maybe there’s an easy way to protect our selves against the virus?
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.19.435959v1
This is a non-peer reviewed article out of Germany, encouraging further study of dandelion extract. Lab indication are that it might work, and the extract is known to be non-toxic. Studies in animals and/or humans are needed.
It is very interesting.
Maybe someone can be interested to know that in some regions in Italy (and I’m sure also in many other Countries in the world), salada with dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are typical countryside old-style recipes.
Taraxacum is present almost everywhere in the world.
It could be a wonderful natural response to a probably human generated crime (artificial virus).
Finger crossed.
Please see:
https://www.gallorosso.it/it/mescite-contadine/ricette-tipici/insalata-al-dente-di-leone-con-uova-57/
https://www.buonissimo.it/lericette/6019_Dente_di_leone_in_insalata
https://www.ilovevaldinon.it/come-cucinare-il-tarassaco
Peasants knew a lot……..
Two minutes on why positive PCR tests don’t necessarily mean you have Covid or are sick. Very educational.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/bumlZGnzmMfI/
If a cutoff of 30 cycles is used on PCR tests, many currently positive test results are elimininated. The percentage was 63% for one lab and 90% for another lab.
I believe you mean using 30 rather than 45 cycles lowers the posItives by 90%. It would be good if someone posts a graph of positives verses number of cycles. So we can all see that any desired results can be dialed in.
https://youtu.be/e4grP1718Ps
For those who like objective science, the above is a super presentation on Covid by Ioannidis.
Get it hot, probably due to be censored as he points out the miniscule risk to children from Covid, which is Double Bad Wrongthink these days……. Gosh, it might even be a CT!
Except that quite a lot of children in England have long covid.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933233-600-children-are-getting-long-covid-and-being-left-with-lasting-problems/
You do realise, surely you must, that that vaccines may well kill and cripple: much worse than ‘Long-Covid’?
I have just been contacted by a friend, a consultant surgeon, a Cambridge University lecturer, with his own immunology research team, who warned me last year that they had been rushed and should be avoided for at least 4-5 years, just to be safe.
He now says, reviewing the stats on deaths and injuries, that they are ‘unsafe and should be withdrawn’.
So, from someone at the top in research: ‘UNSAFE AND SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN’.
I think that should be definitive.
He cannot state this in public, on social media, or even to his patients, because his career and life would be destroyed.
Imagine how this – brilliant, compassionate – and dedicated man, now feels……..
Well, I realise that all drugs have side effects and some of those may be fatal (which would be worse than long covid), though AFAIK, the severity and rates of side-effects for the vaccine has not been thoroughly investigated. As you don’t provide the name of the consultant surgeon, I have to allow for the possibility that the claim is false. If it isn’t false, I’d have to consider whether that surgeon is complicit by not speaking up.
However, my comment was about long covid being experienced by many children, in response to a claim that the risk of COVID-19 to children is minuscule.
But Mike — the vaccine does NOT stop people from getting covid… I can post that video from Fauci stating this + the Ministry of Health for NZ stated this on their website (and then removed it)….
So Injecting children is not going to stop long covid (which is the same as long flu)… so what is your point?
One of my good mates plays for the Ice Blacks — obviously young and healthy— he had a cold last year… it lasted 2+ months… I remember him complaining that he couldn’t drop it…. lots of people have colds that last for many weeks… they just cannot get rid of it… this is not uncommon.
The clue to the point is in the comment:
Mike admits to being Injected. I get the sense that Mike is not an old half dead person. So I am wondering why Mike would allow himself to be Injected.
And this shines new light on Mikes comments… it’s kinda like when the defence calls a drug addicted whore to the stand to provide an alibi for his client….
As I thought I made clear, the consultant is known to me and a friend of 20 years standing. His research record is outstanding.
I will not violate his trust by putting his name in the public domain, as his life and career would be ruined.
So, I am informing friends and family privately, and thought I would also share it here for those who have the intelligence and sense to pay attention.
He is not ‘complicit’, as he did not create the vaccines, and is not directly involved in the programme.
But it does worry his conscience.
To speak up in public would be to ruin himself for nothing, so great are the forces behind this, and so complete the capture of regulators and professional bodies which are all enforcing the government policy.
Moreover, by contract alone he is not permitted to question any public health policy in public.
That is the situation for medical professionals in most countries. Very dangerous for all of us!
‘Long-Covid’ looks more and more like a propaganda tool to scare people when they aren’t exactly stepping over corpses every day.
Long-term effects are very common from colds and viruses: no energy, bad heart, breathlessness, dizziness, etc. We’ve all had it I suppose.
I have an idiot relative who always cites a case she heard about on the BBC of ‘a man who lost the sight in one eye’ due to ‘Long-Covid’. It’s terrified her!
Just crude fear propaganda: ‘If you don’t die of Covid, it cripples you!’
It’s the equivalent of ‘Russian hackers did it!’.
The propagandists are not very imaginative, but they are effective – on primitive brains primed by fear and demoralised by lock-downs.
I guess she’s not aware of the thousands who have been maimed (including blinded) by the Injections.
I fear the Injection far more than I fear Covid
You did make it clear but I don’t know you and I don’t know your friend or even if this friend exists. That’s all I’m saying. I assume you posted this in order to educate people but it does nothing of the sort, as it is currently hearsay only.
I know many people who’ve had a vaccine (mostly the Pfizer one) and don’t know anyone whose had a bad reaction to it. I’ve even had one dose myself.
“Terrorist threat increases due to lockdowns” – Home Secretary Priti Patel has warned that Britain faces a heightened terrorist threat due to lockdown creating a range of “triggers” that could push individuals to act
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/terrorist-threat-increases-due-to-lockdowns-06n999tqv
It is very unique and unusual that spending time on internet gathering information and documenting yourself outside mainstream media can be described as a potential triggering factor…
All a part of the ‘an unregulated internet is dangerous’ theme, as they build up to open censorship, I suspect.
An Economist named Daniel Lacalle published a blog post recently called Europe: Non-competitive Power Prices Derail Growth
A person would think Lacalle is stating the obvious. The subsidies required for renewables indirectly add costs. The required carbon emission permits add more costs, causing problems because companies become less and less competitive with companies elsewhere. He says:
He later says,
Tranny Freaks go Mainstream.
I am assuming the jangly bits have been removed? Would look a bit odd in the swimsuit competition … or perhaps it just tucks them in behind and shuffles around the stage without every turning her back on the cameras? It’s apparently and art form
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/man-crowned-miss-nevada-usa-first-pageant-history
https://twitter.com/i/status/1409509303233380358
Why not?
Goes well with the gelded unit in the White house.
US is exhibiting all the effects of ‘helicopter parenting’; in this case the helicopter ‘parent’ is the liberal infrastructure of narrative control telling imbeciles they can be ‘whatever you dream you want to be, yhen you can be’.
Hold on…maybe they were right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIYGFSONKbk
Recruitiing video. Join the army! Strange!!!
Creepy stuff, el Mar!
One should set it alongside the army films made by the Nazis and Soviets to get a real sense of just how odd it is – brainwashing just the same, of course.
Two things…
1. Thanks to her for joining the forces and blowing people up, stealing their resources and allowing us to Live Large
2. This demonstrates that the Penthouse version of lesbos is a fable… at least one of them is always butchy.
I like the way one of the lesbians is a bull-dike like Janet Reno. I guess that makes military types feel better.
FE we need new terminology
tranny dabbling – man dna wise with pen1s that says he is a woman, woman dna wise with breast that says she is a man
tranny committed – man dna wise with pen1s cut off that says he is a woman, woman dna wise with breasts cut off that says she is a man
and of course uterus and ovary removal for dna women and pen1s inversion to form vagina for dna men. Is there a procedure used for dna women to give them a pen1s?
According to CNN the economy is booming and it is going to grow at its fastest pace in decades…!
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/29/economy/consumer-confidence-republican-democrat/index.html
people really do believe this stuff…Funny the article says nothing of debt levels and government spending. How could it be booming if oil consumption is down.
to the stars!
Yup, fake it till you make it!
Reminds me of the Obama days when all the liberals were going around saying “Obama did it!” He fixed everything! Ignorance is bliss!!!
Lots of jobs available! Lots of money being handed out by the government! Everything is good.
Priming the pump? Build it and they will come? I heard it worked in the ’30s so why not now? The economy is a monetary system and not a function of underlying inexpensive energy propelling it ever further.
unless you’re joking (often difficult to tell on here)—we live in an energy economy, not a money economy
money value, in real terms, is just a function of available energy
I think so too Norm but as this train keeps chugging along I sometimes wonder if D’Stevens isn’t right
he isn’t, but don’t take my word for it
in an economy based on money, eventually you need a wheelbarrow instead of a wallet
for the simple reason that there’s too much money chasing too few (energy rich) goods
What about something like the Bretton Woods agreement with a new currency? I am starting to hear more chatter about this happening as a reset.
Bretton Woods was designed by my favorite economist, John Maynard Keynes, who was a spherical genius; I mean a genius from any angle you look at him. I’ve studied everything he ever wrote. We have many bright economists today, but none with the intellect, experience, and ability to work with people as Keynes. Hence, I don’t think think there is any economist around today who can do what Keynes did at Bretton Woods.
without energy support, currency is worthless whatever you call it
Don, Keynes wanted a tax of nations with unbalanced exports to be payed to nations with unbalanced imports. The US did not like that idea. Ironic, it would be great now, tax China to pay to developed under developed US
Energy is cheaper now that it was during the 1970s. We got through the seventies all right, though there was a good deal of inflation. I think inflation of about 3% per per year is in our near future, based on the increase in the M2 money supply.
Don … come on … fess up … you’re a grade 3 teacher…. even a community college sociology teacher would not make such an asinine statement after asinine statement….
http://www.miamicountrydayassets.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/3rd-Grade-Boys.jpg
My statement is true and I can prove it easily. You can too; just do the numbers on prices and inflation. You do not seem to know much economics. Why not? That is a mystery to me.
up to now you’ve cornered the market in asinine statements Eddy
you can’t hold the title forever
MSM surprises with an article about the grid and renewables. https://www.yahoo.com/news/grids-big-looming-problem-getting-110154904.html
no problem Joe writes a check for 600 billion dollars of new transmission lines
You are exactly right! I bet this will be in the next infrastructure bill.
That is a great article, originally from the Washington Post.
An excerpt:
Another excerpt:
Wind and solar needs a whole lot more transmission than other electricity generation, partly because it is more distant from where it is used and partly because the lines (on average) operate much less “full” for an intermittent source compared to one that operates close to all of the time. It takes a very long time to permit and build new generation (up to 10 years).
Let’s make a list of Top 10 beliefs that automatically qualify someone as on par with an average dog in terms of intelligence:
1. They believe it is possible to operate BAU using ‘renewable energy’
2. They believe a hydrogen economy is possible.
3. They believe that humans can pass through the Van Allen Belts and walk on the moon
4. They believe we can establish colonies on other planets
5. They believe that the US govt did not orchestrate 911
6. They believe Celine Dion is sexy and that Brittaney Spears wrote her songs.
7. They believe Covid is more deadly than the flu and that we need to lockdown to prevent the health system from collapsing.
8. They believed that WMD was real but then insisted that they never said that after WMD was exposed at a hoax.
9. They believe that a helicopter has been flying around Mars the past few months, landing, recharging using solar energy and batteries (even though Mars gets very hot and very cold and batteries do not like cold or hot weather).
10. They dismiss the theory outright that the Covid ‘Vaccines’ are Lethal Injections intended to kill 8B people.
Feel free to add more…
Anyone ticking more than 5 boxes… gets Alpo for dinner tonight….
I embrace nos. 3, 5, half of 7 (*), 9, and 10. So, woof woof?
(*) Yes, Covid-19 is more deadly than the flu, but the utility of lockdowns depend on the circumstances, like, what country we’re talking about.
wheew only 2. On #6 does any body believe any singer writes their own songs? Except Bob Dillon, Morgan James, Brandi Carlile and maybe a few others
Dylan
FE,
all those beliefs are more or less “normal” to human beings.
They don’t seem true to me but I accept people believing in them.
What is sociopathic and evil – and yet embraced even by some people here – is the acceptance of all government removal of human rights.
The people here that support lockdowns and got the jab are the “good germans” that support firing of university professors (because they supported Nuremberg code) or the internment in asylum of a lawyer (because she sued the government over lockdown).
Most people lost the freedom of speech, travel and bodily integrity.
But for Bei, Mike, Norm etc these are not problems. They debate the “science” of vaccines and think themselves rational.
For them I have a question: how far will you take your support? How many people have to be killed (e.g. by dehydration see the Canadian army report) before you accept your role in this takeover?
FE, I envy your naivete. You still think there is some good even in the oligarchs (hence the CEP). On the contrary, I see the “banality of evil” here and everywhere else.
How can you read their “debunking” of this or that minor statistics while ignoring the facts of censorship, people getting cancelled and murdered? They have nothing to gain for it and yet they are evil – but you expect the owners of most of the world to be humane?
You need to read The Prince… that’s the play book. Atlas Shrugged also provides some insights.
They Elders and the top minions do not believe there is good or evil… there is neither…
Is a lion that kills and eats the new born baby of a gazelle evil?
Is Israel evil because it kills Palestinians and takes their land?
Am I evil because I get in a fight … and I stick a knife in the heart of my opponent … and before dying he gasps — hey that wasn’t fair!
This is the difference between the Elders (and any global power throughout history)…. and the Goy…
They are not psychopaths… they simply understand that banging a tambourine and singing Koombaya (however faintly) will get you killed — in a world where every person and every nation is fighting for more pie.
Feel free to disagree … but the Elders will not attempt to convince you of this reality…. in fact they want you to think as you do — it makes their job so much easier.
You can continue to throw your spare change into the charity box at the check out…
The Elders do not do acts of kindness… think of them as cut throat bankers .. or accountants… they only see numbers … there is no room for subjectivity… or pity…. they are as hard as the hardest steel…
They are deviating with the CEP … they could just allow us to Rip Faces Off … but what’s the point in that?
It all leads to extinction one way or another… their goal has been to keep the train on the tracks for as long as possible — so they could continue to enjoy Champagne and caviar…
But what cannot continue will stop – they know that…. at some point you just put a gun in the mouth of all humans and pull (or a needle in the arm)… money and power do not insulate you from the end of oil.
A friend who was in banking (but decent, even when he got a bit too greedy) observed that it is not so much that they are ‘evil’ , of the psychopathic serial killer type: the frightening thing is that they are totally without conscience or empathy.
Their only feelings are delight at winning, anger in failing, at losing their grip, their control. No empathy at all, focus on power. We are no more than insects to them (think of Musk’s comment about ant-hills that get in the way…..)
They will do anything that seems likely to succeed and is expedient – just as Machiavelli recommended as a survival strategy in the brutal Italy of his time.
Trying taking a single dollar from an extremely rich person…. the reaction is similar to that of a hungry pit bull if you try to take away its bone…
That is all too true, FE. They are both powerful, and pathetic…..
Machiavelli says be a fair and just ruler but if you are not going to do that #2 choice rule with an iron fist keep them scared of you. Those who have not read The Prince always jump to #2
Fair to your own people … everyone else you murder rob pillage rape kill some more crush under your boot … and so on … and don’t use mercenaries… they’ll usurp you or betray you
The naive pro-Vax, pro-lock-down, pro- ‘vaccine passports’ people do not seem to grasp that their basic human and civic rights are being removed, all of them, at one blow.
It is the most obvious fact in all of this!
I cannot grasp such imbecility, except for a kind of internal editor that shields people from facing frightening facts.
Or is that they can’t make connections? Dr Yeadon, on the other hand, says that he was a good researcher as he could pick up on hints and fragments.
I wonder for how long opponents of Hitler were still saying ‘He’s a clown, he won’t last long’, how long until they grasped that everything had changed and that they now lived in a system that could kill them on a whim, that the constitutional Republic would never come back?
Even the plotters of 1944 still didn’t understand how dangerous and powerful he still was: dreadful mistake!
Frankly, I do not see how this new Totalitarian system can be ended, unless by Collapse: it seems deeply embedded in institutions and politics (the WEF’s ‘young leaders’ are everywhere!) and most of the population are still unaware of what has happened, even if discontent is growing.
Great explanation Xabier!
we brought the virus on ourselves
just as they did in 1921
back then there was no question that the virus was man made and artificially spread in order to control us and take away human rights.
And no social media to convince us otherwise either
Thank you: as horrible as it is, I try to look the truth in the face.
These bastards have get us in their Techno-trap, but I’m damned if they will get me swallowing their lies!
Reinforces the understanding that the Goy are just plain stooopid when it comes down to it… sure they are capable of performing some interesting circus tricks but that’s not true intelligence…
Crinkle the treat bag and the Goy can be trained to perform brain surgery. Big f789ing deal.
4 points (3, 5, 9, 10)
Voyager I is the first human made object which has entered the interstellar space.
Both Voyager I and Voyager II (which was actually launched first, but deliberately slowed down so it could film Jupiter and Saturn) used Jupiter’s Gravity Assist, something which is possible once in around 170 years. In other words, since that happened in 1977 , we won’t have it until 2147 again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELnn9V01EiI
I listen to this music, called the “Golden Record”, music selected by Carl Sagan and his friends to be played before the aliens. It was put in Voyager I to travel for a billion years, according to Sagan.
Which is why we are not sending too many Voyagers again . To send it again we have to wait till 2147.
New Horizons, sent to explore Pluto (which was a planet when it was launched in 2006, a few months before it lost the Planet status) is much slower than Voyager I. It did use Jupiter’s gravity too, but conditions were much less ideal.
After New Horizons, we have not sent anything which might have the potential to reach outer space since without the Jupiter’s gravity it won’t really escape the solar system and conditions are not too ideal for the next hundred years or so.
Words are cheap. Bringing forth the conditions the word had specified is the harder part.
The only thing you need to wait 170 years for is the alignment that allows a single spacecraft to visit all of the giant outer planets like Voyager 2 did, whereas a Jupiter gravity assist is possible in any direction every dozen years or so. New Horizons was actually the fastest craft at launch (of any ever IIRC); the main reason it’s going slower than the Voyagers is because it didn’t also get a second boost from Saturn.
Trident was nearly funded this year, which would have also ended up on a solar escape trajectory, but it lost out to a pair of Venus projects.
Starship will be able to put 100,000 KG into LEO. If we have a probe of 10,000 KG we have 80,000 of fuel for an ion engine, 10,000 KG for solar power for engine. We get delta v of about 1.4 times the exhaust velocity. Ion engines have 50km/s exhaust velocity. So, we can reach 168,000 KM/hour. More than enough to exceed solar escape velocity of 151,000 KM/hour.
with on orbit refueling we can get this as fast as we want to pay for. About 300,000 KM/hour for 5 re-fuelers at 50 million each say 250 million dollars.
My In-laws live in the UK and would love to visit my wife and I in California over the summer. Yesterday, they mentioned that there are ongoing discussions about how to reopen the US / UK corridor and that currently it appears as though Brits who’ve received the AstraZeneca “vaccine” will not be allowed entry into the US. This is because the AstraZeneca “vaccine” is not one of the big three FDA approved for emergency use “vaccines” (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson).
I’d also heard that this US government approach applies to the Chinese-made “vaccine” and the Russian-made “vaccine” as well.
My In-laws were early adopters of “the vaccine is our only hope” perspective. They thought it would enable a return to the pre-scamdemic way of life, where international travel would be easy and permissible again. They didn’t anticipate that the “vaccine” itself would be used as a tool to restrict their movement. I didn’t see that one coming, either – a clever twist in the scamdemic narrative.
So, it seems there are now a few methods for grounding international travelers:
1. The destination country does not consider your particular brand of magical elixir as legitimate.
2. The destination country does not want to let you in because you come from a COVID-19 hotbed.
3. Yet to be seen: a new variant strain escapes all current “vaccines” and you cannot travel until a new magical elixir is developed, brought to market and injected in your arm. But then, you are looking at the possibility of facing 1 and 2 again.
Good points!
I am sure that new reasons for grounding will come along as well:
4. The destination country insists that you have a particular booster shot.
There will be indirect reasons as well. I know that my husband and I did not vacation overseas this year (even though we had a credit that could be used from last year) because the US requires a negative COVID-19 test within three days of returning for all air travel out of the country. We would need to stay in the last place we visited an extra three days because we would be away from test sites while touring around. We had picked out a 14-day trip we were (sort of) interested in visiting, but adding another 3-days (and the possibility of needing to stay longer) made the trip too long, and added iffiness to the return date. The negative COVID test requirement still seems to be in effect for the US (or proof of recovery from COVID-19 within the last 90 days).
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/ea/covid-19-information1.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html
Q: What if I have had a COVID-19 vaccine or have tested positive for antibodies? Do I still need a negative COVID-19 test or documentation of recovery from COVID-19?
A: Yes, at this time all air passengers traveling to the US, regardless of vaccination or antibody status, are required to provide a negative COVID-19 test result or documentation of recovery.
Q: Do state and local governments in the US have separate testing requirements for air passengers?
A: Federal testing requirements must be met to board a plane to the US. Some state and local governments may have similar or more restrictive testing requirements for air passengers arriving in their jurisdictions. Always check and follow state and local recommendations or requirements related to travel in addition to federal requirements.
The testing requirements are also a major deterrent for international travelers. My wife learned that she would need to take 5 tests in order to visit her family in England – an expensive proposition that comes with the risk of a lockdown should any test yield a positive result.
I knew that people weren’t going to get back their freedom to travel via the injections. I knew the scamdemic wasn’t about controlling a virus but rather it was about controlling people. Hell, in some places “vaccinated” people aren’t even enjoying the freedom of removing their masks. The other day, the WHO announced that everyone, regardless of “vaccine” status, should still be wearing masks because of the dreaded Delta variant.
I feel sympathy for those who are slowly coming to realize that they’ve been deceived (or perhaps that they’ve deceived themselves) into thinking that if they just cooperate with the scamdemic narrative peddlers that everything about pre-scamdemic life would return. Their dilemma has always been one based on faith; specifically where to invest their faith. Exercising discernment has always been essential in addressing that dilemma.
Not only does a person have to pay for the tests, they often have to stay extra nights in a hotel to be able to take the tests. All of the costs add up.
I have no sympathy for them … why just yesterday I was ridiculing a CovIDIOT who has been insisting for months now that I get the Injection.
I was taunting him yesterday asking if he was going to fly to Bali or Thailand for the HK long weekend upcoming … he responded with ‘can’t do the quarantine’ (3 weeks).
I said yes I know … I was only jesting … so when do you get to fly quarantine free now that you’ve had the jabs…. next month? Or maybe by the fall?
Then I point him to HK banning UK flights due to the variants….
I can get away with this because I said to him months ago — if they are telling you that the world will open to you once vaccinated… why don’t you wait to see if it is open first then get the jab….
Given they’ve flip flopped and lied many times during this scamdemic
I guess I shouldn’t be amazed at the number of people who seem determined to travel to other countries. When the NZ/Aus travel bubble opened, there was an initial rush. There is always the possibility of your home country imposing restrictions (as has happened with that bubble), which completely upturns your plans. Even if you don’t agree with such restrictions, they are still a very real possibility.
Why bother? I’m sure that if someone is desperate to leave their home region for a while (which is a luxury, or unthinkable, for most of the world’s population), why not just see more of your own country? It’s much more reliably planned.
+++++
Traveling to a different country as a tourist is one thing but traveling to different country to see your parents and extended family is another. My wife was born in England, lives in California, and hasn’t visited her family since December 2019. I’m sure she’s not the only dual citizen experiencing this situation during the scamdemic.
This international living situation was more manageable prior to the scamdemic, during the era of cheap energy. We could easily make the trip to England once or twice a year, which kept the in-laws happy enough. I suspect those 5,000+ mile flights may never come back – whether we choose to become born again Branch Covidians and inject ourselves or remain pure, non-GMO humans. As most of my wife’s family are Branch Covidians themselves, having been blessed with the holy elixir produced by AstraZeneca, hallowed be thy name, they will likely be prevented from entering the US for some time. Another option for a reunion is to meet in a European country that will grant entry to both Branch Covidians from the UK and heretics from the US.
Some of us have come to the realization that we may never board a plane or see a non-locally-based relative again. That seems to us like basic reality, far from being the worst thing, since we can call them by phone, or contact them by email or Facebook. It helps if you don’t like people, I suppose.
I met my wife in the UK while on a J-1 visa. We were both undergraduate students at the time. Looking back, our relationship could be viewed as a product of the era of cheap energy.
I suspect going forward young people looking to form romantic partnerships will be doing so on a much more localized level. International romantic partnerships may only be feasible strictly via telecommunications technology.
Sometimes I miss visiting England; walking the same streets I walked as a foreign student. The experience was much better for me than anything I could’ve imagined for myself at that age. The best thing to come from it was my relationship with my wife, of course; but also, it provided me with empirical evidence that a larger world existed outside my limited, localized one.
Cultural exchange will suffer from these travel restrictions. Watching Netflix documentaries on other cultures while sitting in our lockdown prison cells isn’t a substitute for first-hand experience with those cultures. To exchange ideas in direct conversation with these people; to try their food; to observe the difference in their local fauna and flora; to notice that the earth smells differently than it does in the place that you travelled from – these experiences leave impressions on your soul that you’ll carry with you for the rest of this life and, perhaps, beyond. The expansion of consciousness and the growth of the soul are why we are here on Earth.
Well… we cannot go back down the ladder … cuz we kicked in the rungs on the way up (see Haber Bosch those SOBS!)… so going forward … Fast Eddy sees only … Extinction
My guess is that most tourists experience the tourist attractions and that alternative cultures are rarely experienced abroad (in any meaningful sense). However, I’m not sure what the point of “experiencing” other cultures for a few days is, other than a bit of pleasure and a few memories.
Right. As French living in France, my wife and I decided for the 2nd year to spend our holidays in France.
But my sister lives in England with her British husband and children. Haven’t seen them for 2 years.
My wife’s family is French, from the Reunion island, a very remote French island, about 5,000 nautic miles away from Europe, in Indian ocean, near Mauritius. We haven’t seen them for 2 years.
When my wife’s ancestor left France on a sailing ship (running on renewable energy, by the way), about 3 centuries ago for a 2 years trip, he didn’t expect to ever see his family again.
“When my wife’s ancestor left France on a sailing ship (running on renewable energy, by the way), about 3 centuries ago for a 2 years trip, he didn’t expect to ever see his family again.”
Never seeing family again: sometimes I think that’s what we’ll soon be facing. It’s a hard thing to consider for most, though, as everyone knows about the miraculous flying machines that have been operating since the early twentieth century.
I find it interesting that those earlier industrialists spent a lot of time and money convincing the masses that travel by aircraft was safe, luxurious, fun, and preferable to other modes of transportation. When they had access to cheap energy it was all about getting our asses on those airplane seats so they could profit. Now, they’ve decided to run a global “pandemic” narrative as their cover story for energy rationing. Suddenly they don’t want our asses on those airplane seats anymore.
Perhaps the masses will once again be relying on sailing ships and horse-drawn carts when visiting family.
“When my wife’s ancestor left France on a sailing ship (running on renewable energy, by the way), about 3 centuries ago for a 2 years trip, he didn’t expect to ever see his family again.”
Never seeing family again: sometimes I think that’s what we’ll soon be facing. It’s a hard thing to consider for most, though, as everyone knows about the miraculous flying machines that have been operating since the early twentieth century.
I find it interesting that those earlier industrialists spent a lot of time and money convincing the masses that travel by aircraft was safe, luxurious, fun, and preferable to other modes of transportation. When they had access to cheap energy it was all about getting us in those airplane seats so they could profit. Now, they’ve decided to run a global “pandemic” narrative as their cover story for energy rationing. Suddenly they don’t want us in those airplane seats anymore.
Perhaps the masses will once again be relying on sailing ships and horse-drawn carts when visiting family.
Even when they lived in the same country, they might not see relations again, or only very infrequently.
Mothers often saw their sons and daughters depart forever.
Frequent visits were mostly confined to the upper classes, and they would stay for a month or two at a time.
Few can grasp how great an anomaly our way of life has been.
Yes, I’ve heard about this. The fact that with Astrazeneca you cannot enter US because it is a vaccine not approved in US makes perfect sense. What is ironic is that UK has left EU to strengthen its alliance with US, but people vaccinated with the main UK vaccine are not allowed to go to US and they are allowed to go to EU.
But we can add another ironic thing, in Italy following various adverse reactions on young people (striking thrombosis and hemorrhages) they have decided to leave Astrazeneca only to people over 60, but many thousands of people under 60 have already taken the first dose of Astrazeneca, so now authorities are suggesting to make a cocktail mix with Pfizer as a second dose.
‘initial indications’ are showing, they say, that antibodies are higher with a mix…
A part that nobody knows what will happen to those poor people who will roll the dice for a cocktail mix of vaccines (mixed adverse reactions?), they probably could go nowhere 😀
Please see:
https://www.byoblu.com/2021/06/14/mix-di-vaccini-ok-dal-ministero-i-bugiardini-dicono-che-non-e-possibile/
maybe they can get all vaccines???
Or
4/ Not flying in on a private/ state jet………?
A hypothetical:
Hirsch made a DOE report in 2005 stating we need to plan twenty years ahead for the coming energy crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirsch_report
RE does not work, pollution secondary to mankind does not work, we are seeing considerable conflict all over the world. We have had good intentions, but they did and do not work.
Population going up? Maybe not, one man is trying to build massive space ships and go to the moon, mars – pollution off earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqnlKHfe78U&t=6s
Regarding thermodynamics of mining space. Psychic 16 has been quoted as being worth 10,000 quintillion, more than the invested worth of the world with no pollution. Some here scoff, how to bring it back to earth, it seems to me the economics are a can’t lose, don’t bring it back to earth, drop it onto Mars, the place has scars from pervious close encounters, let it rip!
We have known about the coming issues, we have had time, had we started twenty years ago we would be on Mars – of course everyone here(almost) knows that can’t work, nothing can work. So what would have been the loss? Nothing.
We have one earth, one home, it has worked for a very long time, it needs a break, drop an asteroid on Mars, take picks and shovels, make something, package it from a low gravity well and send it on its way to earth. Save mankind, stop destroying our home with hopeless pollution.
We are going to change, there aren’t enough people to do the work that needs to be done and they need to be of the right age, very young and very old cannot do the work. China recognizes this, see new birth policy.
We don’t have twenty years, but we don’t have a choice other than total nihilism. Well, I have an attitude, here, FE, hold my beer.
Dennis L.
Dr. Guy McPherson. Nature Bats Last! We do not have a “problem” we have a predicament. As a result of habitat loss we are soon going the way of the dodo bird. Aerosol Masking Effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNBpt5IUIMI
Dr. Guy McPherson has something for Our very own Fast Eddy….
Nuclear Power Plants
Means of Extinction: Nuclear Facilities Implode
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j1fmEApzj-o
See, let me count the ways….
With all due respect:
Guy is the fellow who has been living in the desert for 20? years waiting for the end of the world. One has to wonder how that is working now with extreme heat in that part of the world. Perhaps he should have investigated what happened to the cliff dwellers of the Four Corners area.
We survived the ice age, we survived going to 10K or so breeding pairs, we will do fine and thrive to boot.
Dennis L.
Well, the arthropods are thriving at earth now. “Thriving” has degrees.
I don’t think Guy has been living in the desert for 20 years. He tried it for a while, but soon quit. This is a link to his blog.
https://guymcpherson.com
He seems to want to build a home in Vermont on some property he bought, with a girl friend named Pauline.
There is also a Wikipedia article about him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_McPherson
Thanks, I didn’t follow up on what happened to him. He was tenured as I recall, moved to the desert, that didn’t work out. Would be interesting to know how old Pauline is, young enough for children? That would be a hoot.
“In May 2009, McPherson began living on an off-grid homestead in southern New Mexico. He then moved to Belize in July 2016. He moved to New York in October of 2018.” Wikipedia. Unlike Moses, he didn’t make 40 years only seven as I count.
“He is known for the idea of Near-Term Human Extinction (NTHE), a term he coined[4] about the likelihood of human extinction by 2026.” same Wikipedia referenced.
Well, all these doomers leave more for the doers. What is it about academics that only seems to see doom?
It is the best of all times to be alive. Why? well, because it is the only time we have, make the best of it, invest for the future, Mars anyone?
Dennis L.
I saw a movie that Guy showed with respect to his experience in New Mexico. He couldn’t get along with the couple sharing the property he was on. He installed a whole lot of expensive equipment (big stainless steel refrigerator and sink, if I remember correctly). But my impression was that his attempt didn’t last more than a year or two.
I think it was about 2013 when I saw Guy McPherson’s movie, and the New Mexico experience was past tense at that time. We both spoke at the same Four Quarters Interfaith conference in Pennsylvania.
It was my understanding that he left an earlier wife when he moved to New Mexico.
I ran across a website that talks about Guy MacPherson’s partner, Pauline Schneider, nee Panagiotou.
https://www.onlyloveremains.org/facilitators.html
She was born in 1963, according to this website, so she is about 58 years old:
https://www.audible.com/author/Pauline-Panagiotou-Schneider/B01ASM4SZ2
What exactly does his personal life have to do with his analysis of the peer reviewed reports? And the obvious critical state that we are in!
He has given up pretty much everything in his life, been disparaged and attacked verbally including death threats to try to convince people of the dire situation we are in and what exactly have you done Dennis? Let’s hear about that instead of your stupid, defamatory comments and attacks. IF a fraction of people on this planet had a fraction of the integrity that he has maybe things would have turned out different.
Humans are not the “wise ape” and we prove it collectively on a daily basis. Distracting ourselves with shiny trinkets and bs feel good nonsense and attacking the truth tellers! Guy has “walked the walk” far more than most people have and you knock him? WOW! He may not be a perfect person but he is an exemplary one!
I am in Vancouver, BC and on Sunday the temp on my shaded deck reached 115.5 degrees F! Unprecedented!
You probably didn’t click the link to a video where he explains the Aerosol Masking Effect and a possible solution to buy us more time.
We deserve everything that is coming our way and people like you prove that every single day!
TIna, a lot of the “science” promoted by Guy isn’t just wrong, it’s nonsense. It is so nonsensical that it is painful to read or listen to him.
IMHO, he isn’t worth debunking. He’s basically a litmus test for people. Anyone taking his predictions seriously is a total scientific ignoramus.
Dennis, Guy also has lived in Central America, just did a stint in Central Florida and now has moved to Vermont….what of it….plenty of folks move around and have done what he has done, homesteading and providing direction…after all he IS a professional teacher. Interesting book of his life journey.
Suppose we can poke holes in just about anyone’s life…even Jesus Christ! Professor McPherson repeatedly has stated he finds no joy in his announcements…and judging from the recent posts here regarding extreme weather conditions in just about any part of the Planet …appears he🙄may not be too off the mark
McPherson is biased towards complete extinction of life as his interpretation of all science is tilted towards this objective. I understand that one of his fairly recent (i.e. within the last few years) prediction was that the world would be too hot to survive by the early to mid 20s. Whatever he has to say is probably not going to be educational. I used to like the guy and even have his first book about the predicament. But he constantly misrepresented the science and supported nonsensical blogs like the arctic-news blog and that mythical blogger Sam Carana, who was even worse with understanding the science.
Extinction remains a possibility but it isn’t a certainty.
Guy is mainlining the GW propaganda…. it’s a fine line between euphoria and death by overdose.
Right up your alley 😜, Fast Eddy!
I knew you would like it!
‘He’ would probably agree with ‘this’?
” . . . destabilization of subsea methane hydrates. This subsea Arctic methane hydrate destabilization will go out of control in 2024 and lead to a catastrophic heatwave by 2026.”
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2021/05/extinction-by-2027.html?fbclid=IwAR3FEKqILrzS_Le1Z4LRmEvqoSRz6p2rBIFjbNmY1NFB_rHeU4RpDT8u2Zg
I would recommend this video to anyone who is in a manic phase.
Psyche is just about 360 miles away from earth. Sorry, I forgot “million” in the middle.
It takes a couple years to get there, and no one has figured out how to get back.
China’s three child policy won’t work since its smarter pop would rather enjoy the day and eat more delicacy than have more children. Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong never had it but that did not increase their smarter pop too much. In there, as always, it is the less intelligent who have had more children.
Musk was peddling the same thing he is peddling now 10 years ago. With not too much real difference being made. He will peddle about this 10 years from now, your mythical whiz kids notwithstanding.
===
If wishes were horses, the beggars would ride. – unknown Scottish sage, around 1620
More on Psyche
It is not 100% metal as advertised. Unfortunately for Dennis, some asteroid had hit it first so it is now full of heaps of stones, not too easy to mine
https://news.arizona.edu/story/asteroid-16-psyche-might-not-be-what-scientists-expected
Kul,
Last reply of day. So it is only worth half the wealth of earth, still a good bet I’ll bet.
Kul, hint, it is the only bet, some are making it, someone will be the old lobster.
Dennis L.
Maybe betting about 1/100 of a wealthy person’s net worth? As you know, they sometimes bet on things which seem crazy but just might work, as some kind of ‘insurance’ policy.
I see no wrong on that kind of speculation btw
Paragraph 3.
It is the affluent who are having children, they can afford it; it is the old lobster problem as always.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/25/women-wealth-childcare-family-babies-study
https://qz.com/1125805/the-reason-the-richest-women-in-the-us-are-the-ones-having-the-most-kids/
Smart people, good looking people having smart children, good looking children attending good schools. What could go wrong?
Kul, work is now brutal, you never get a break, some can do it, some don’t. Does this perhaps explain some of the tension now on campuses? It is really tough to find a niche, tougher yet to hold on to it.
Still, as mentioned before, a chicken is an egg’s way of making another egg. Nature does bat last, but not in the way some think.
Dennis L.
You are comparing affluent women in USA having more children and China’s 3 child policies. Asian women do not think like some American women.
Stranded Assets!???…..where did we read that before…hint…Gail OFW
Steel sector may be saddled with up to $70 billion stranded assets – report
FILE PHOTO: Worker walks past steel rolls at the Chongqing Iron and Steel plant in Changshou
Eric Onstad
Tue, June 29, 2021, 7:12 AM
By Eric Onstad
LONDON (Reuters) – The global steel industry may have to write down up to $70 billion in assets in the coming years because it is still building new blast furnaces using coal that will become obsolete as the world cuts carbon emissions, a report said on Tuesday.
Some 50 million tonnes of steelmaking capacity is under development using blast furnace technology, largely in top producer China, U.S.-based think-tank Global Energy Monitor (GEM) said in the report.
“Building new coal blast furnaces is a bad bet for steel producers and a bad bet for the planet,” said Christine Shearer, GEM’s coal programme director.
last furnaces using coal could become unnecessary or inoperable, resulting in “stranded assets” worth $47 billion to $70 billion, the report said.
“Based on projections from the IEA and other groups, (they could become stranded) quite likely by 2030-2040. It could be sooner if more aggressive carbon taxes/restrictions are applied,” said Caitlin Swalec, lead author of the report.
Total direct emissions from the global iron and steel sector must fall by more than 50% by 2050 relative to 2019 to meet goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
New plants are being built even though there is large swathes of excess global steelmaking capacity, which was 25% above production levels in 2019, GEM said.
Much of the global steel industry acknowledges it will have to slash carbon emissions since the sector accounts for about 7% of greenhouse gas emissions, the group said.
Sure, no problem…Uncle Joe Biden has a cheque for that!
Blast furnaces will become obsolete as it becomes impossible to mine and transport coal at a price consumers can actually afford. The underlying problem is really “peak coal.”
Gail, I think you are mistaken about Peak Coal. There is plenty of coal in the ground, and it’s cheap to strip mine. It is not expensive to ship: Look at all the coal that Australia exports to China. There are plenty of things to worry about, but Peak Coal is not one of them. There is plenty of iron ore (taconite) left in Minnesota, and one can watch in Duluth as one big ship containing iron ore leaves every hour.
Don,
Mine that stuff and we fry/starve ourselves. It never comes out of the ground, minerals came from space, we go to the source.
Thermodynamics are trivial, see Psychic 16. Per Tim Morgan money is basically energy, see value of the asteroid, can skip all the math, numbers are so large as to make it a can’t lose bet.
Dennis L.
“Thermodynamics are trivial”
Favorite quote of everyone who tried to invent perpetual motion machines
The Spanish got lucky twice
The Aztec ruler thought Cortez was a God
the Inca ruler had died of European brought smallpox and his sons were fighting
Hope they bring some Cupid sculptures so the Psycheans will be willing to mine the asteroids for free
That luck, though, made the Spanish lazy and corrupt. – too much easy money from the South American mines.
It fostered attitudes which still thrive in Spain, although that is partly due to African-Arab traits as well.
I am afraid not. Shipping costs for coal are a deal killer. The price of coal, after shipping, cannot really rise enough to pay the higher costs of producers plus transportation costs.
The total quantity of coal consumed in 2020 was the same as that consumed in 2010, if we believe IEA forecasts for 2020. (BP data for 2020 will be out in a couple of weeks. We can see then if their forecast is the same.) The amount of coal in the ground is misleading. It is distant from where it needs to be used. It is hiding under cities which would need to be moved. It is under the North Sea. Coal has the same problem as oil: The price cannot stay high enough to encourage growing extraction.
We have been relying on China’s coal, but its production started leveling off back in 2012-2013. No one has paid attention to peak coal. Its peak is as important as oil’s peak, in my opinion. Maybe coal production will stay level a bit longer before it falls, or maybe not. Without adequate oil for shipping, coal won’t move far from the mouth of mines.
Gail,
I see the total in 2020 being the same as 2010 as good news, not progress but not a loss either.
We are not going to mine this stuff, it is too expensive and the earth is burping, sort of like drinking too much soda too quickly – sure wakes one up when it gets in the nose.
Dennis L.
Thermodynamics and mineralogy are trivial. We just need to find a big asteroid made of pure anthracite, maneuver it into lunar orbit, and Bob’s yer uncle. 🙂
Bringing China into the global industrial economy was a quite brilliant move, – to extend its life – which few appreciate, nor the debt we owe to those Chinese miners, often working in horrible conditions.
I Love Coal. I can stick a plastic bag of it in the Rayburn at 11pm… and it will burn through till 8am.
Not possible with wood.
And… because all NZ plastic is being shipped to 3rd world countries in Asia and burned I am saving the effort of hauling the super size ‘recycling’ bin to the road side… and instead burning All Plastic in the Rayburn. Since I am using High Grade coal… the temperature is very hot … so the toxic sh it being released is likely a fraction of what comes out of the backyard burns in Malaysia…
Our air is relatively clean down here so a little dioxin is quickly diluted.
It’s All Good!
Hello Herbie, I ask you because I want understand better your point:
exactly what kind of energy will be involved in furnaces if coal should not be used there?
Thanks.
I will answer that one.
We will find an iron asteroid, skip the whole blast thing, drop in on Mars and chip away at what we need, make what we need there and send it on its way to earth, maybe even lift it off of Mar’s surface with an elevator, gravity is less.
With regards to earth, do a Jordan Peterson, clean our bedroom. If you don’t know that one Google or read his book, “Twelve Rules for Life.”
Dennis L.
Jordan Peterson does not know anything about thermodynamics
No, but a bit of love, neatness, and a well made metaphorical bed for our earth would be a good start on our home.
We call it mother earth, maybe mom wants the bed made.
Dennis L.
It would be a bad idea for several reasons but, as it will never happen, it’s not really worth discussing.
Hello Student, don’t know myself…just saw the article and it caught my eye by surprise….I imagine there are many proposals being suggested.
I agree with Gail, most will likely never see the daylight and stay on the drawing board. Even those that might be implemented, doubt there is time to do before collapse.
Also, as fast as CC, doesn’t matter at all this far along with close to 8 billion needy people looking to live a modern easy peezy cushy life.
Like I wrote in a recent post, no way are we going back to Little House on the Prairie days….also Gail wrote the same too…
She recommended living each day as richly as possible and making nice with family and friends
I’m making nice with God, Herbie: given all the lock-downs, and injection mania I’m more likely to be in His presence -sooner than anticipated – than any relations and friends…….
Herbie,
Paris Accords don’t cover Mars, move on, enforce the accords on everyone; that will give the bureaucrats in Paris something to occupy their time for a long while.
Raise the taxes on carbon to the sky, move that stuff to space. Now, who owns it(stuff in space, first one there?) These ideas are sort of breached in the forward looking British Defense Document( I printed the thing, don’t have a link, shouldn’t be hard to find).
What to do with all that tax money? Well, terraform Mars of course. Politically, it is a predicament. How can one be against saving the earth? How can a politician go to a polluting industrialist for campaign contributions. A virtuous circle? Snake eating its tail as in the myths?
Back to the bureaucrats in Paris, what should they do? Well, maybe learning mining, makes as much sense as having a miner learn coding.
Dennis L.
terraforming the Mars is a wonderful idea
The tiny problem about it is no one really has a workable plan which is actually feasible. Just a lot of empty words and fancy advertisements.
don’t tell Elon
he just sold his last Earth house to pay for his first Mars house
Norman,
Have no idea on sale of house, he mentions having an “entertaining house” in the SF area.
In an interview he claims to have invested all his PayPal money in space, cars, and software(?). Also mentions Peter Thiele doesn’t quite have the appetite for risk as he has.
Tesla will sell close to 1M cars this year, that is from a cold start with a new technology. GM and Ford have debt. Casting the frame in one shot is brilliant, inventing a metal to do it is genius.
There seems to be a bit of sour grapes regarding Elon. He actually talks about to future and good of humanity.
Much as I am in favor of solar, photovoltaic doesn’t work, Gail and personal experience; the solar trash is going to be a huge problem, think toxic waste.
We have problems here on earth, we can only go forward.
Life is life, a chicken is the egg’s solution to another egg. We take ourselves too seriously. Those who don’t have children? Yawn, nature views it as a failure and moves on with those who do. Tough love, time to make my bed.
Dennis L.
the details of Musk’s personal intent are obviously up for interpretation and intent
what isn’t up for interpretation is his intent to buy fireworks, and blow them off earth as some kind of profitable fantasy—ie that going to Mars will in some sense deliver profit/benefit back to Earth.
profit accrues from converting one energy form into another, (the business of thermodynamics,)
The cost of sending fireworks to Mars will not allow sufficient profit margin to accrue to any significant degree back on Earth, other than to the rocket scientists who facilitated it
Norman, the point of the Mars colony is not profit. It is the continued existence of humankind. If you place no value on that then you are right it is without profit.
if the survival of humankind depend on Adam-Musk, I think ill take oblivion
Kul,
At best it works, it worst it is a nice jobs program until the next best thing comes along. Hope is a much easier sales job than doom and death.
Dennis L.
“Hope is a much easier sales job than doom and death.”
So you do know you are deluded!
If you were a rational person (ha!) you would discount everything that is sold as hope and ask what is they are really trying to get from you.
Or you could continue trolling here with 60’s fantasy and justify it with “at least I’m positive” or some other new age crap.
The universe does not care what you want. Children wish upon a star but grown ups (so few of them these days) actually have to work to get what they need.
So unless you are directly involved in space exploration, fusion or any other future tech, stop posting repetitive wishful thinking articles.
What you are doing is praying in public to show off your beliefs – and Jesus said something about those pharisees.
I do think Dennis is just being cheerful and a bit tongue-in-cheek, and his posts on farming are very informative.
He’s absolutely correct, too, about human survival instincts and adaptive capacities; but I fear we are too far into Over-shoot for those to help us now.
Even worse, the Techno-freaks like Elon, Gates, Schwab, the MIC in the UK. Israel and US, are going to render our societies even less resilient than it is now by imposing their new model and ever-more fragile ‘solutions’ and control systems.
As the auhor of that piece on Bardi’s blog surmises, their attempts to advance with more complexity, and consolidate their power into the bargain, may well accelerate the end……
I remain sceptical that a manned Martian voyage will be successful. Getting people there and back.
Mars/Earth closest approach is a bi-annual event. The shortest journey takes six months.
Let’s assume two trial unmanned programs, commencing in 2023. With a landing and realistic return payload launch from Mars, each within the same orbital cycle.
We’re then at 2027.
A manned launch from earth in 2027 is designed to carry astronauts for what? A quick run around in the cold Mars dust before launch back to Earth?, or a two-year sojourn before the next periplaneton? I cannot believe that it will be possible to devise and test safe habitation on Mars for an extended period by the end of this decade. There are too many unknowns and sustainability questions. Food, waste recycling, heating, power etc. Not to mention Van Allen belt radiation on the way there.
So we are, by my estimation, looking at the 2030’s at the very earliest for this rather purposeless expedition, to a dry, cold, and very dull, if the pics are anything to go by, nearby planet.
I do not think I am alone in thinking manned trips to the red planet are a waste of time and resources. And a lot can happen between now and 2030…
I think it’s even worse than you say. Question: why have none of the rovers sent to Mars brought back even one gram of a soil sample? Answer: Mars has less gravity than Earth and a thinner atmosphere but it still takes about one third of the thrust to escape Mars gravity and return to Earth. It would take a Falcon Heavy size rocket to escape Mars gravity. It is impossible with today’s technology to send such a rocket to Mars and land it safely, undamaged and fully fueled(!) for the return trip. The ony possible manned trips would be 1. orbit Mars and return or 2.one way trip to the surface of Mars for a short time until the astronauts die.
Let’s send Bezos for No. 2!
@David
Good points. Makes it even more unlikely to work, there and back.
“Mexico’s Drought Is So Severe It Helped Banxico Turn Hawkish… Mexico’s central bank raised an unusual red flag when it upended markets with a surprise interest rate hike last week: drought may pressure farm prices, it warned.
“It was the only new item the central bank, known as Banxico, listed among inflation risks the day it lifted borrowing costs for the first time since 2018. The worst drought in decades, according to NASA, may have persuaded policy makers to turn hawkish, central banker Gerardo Esquivel said in a subsequent interview.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-29/mexico-s-drought-is-so-severe-it-helped-banxico-turn-hawkish
“Water Crisis Is Compounding an Inflation Time Bomb in Brazil.
“Brazil’s worst water crisis in nearly a century is fueling inflation that’s reverberating through the economy, posing an additional challenge for the central bank and for President Jair Bolsonaro’s re-election bid.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-28/water-crisis-is-compounding-an-inflation-time-bomb-in-brazil
This statement alone tells you how ridiculous the situation is “an additional challenge for the central bank and for President Jair Bolsonaro’s re-election bid.” Additional challenge? The guy should be serving life in prison for crimes against humanity. Gimme a break !
High population makes drought more of a problem. Even in the past, drought could bring civilizations down, if they did not have enough food in reserve.
Sergio Chapa
Tue, June 29, 2021, 5:00 AM
(Bloomberg) — Ashley Watt is nothing if not a friend of fracking. She’s invested in mines that supply the sand frackers blast into the ground. Her family owns a ranch larger than Manhattan that’s home to hundreds of oil and natural gas wells. Her Twitter handle is “Frac Sand Baroness.”
That’s what made it all the more jarring almost three weeks ago when Watt began publicly railing against one particular oil driller for leaks on her land. Noxious wastewater from oil drilling began leaching across the ground, endangering people and livestock. By her count, the pollution has killed four cows and two calves so far. Chevron Corp., which drilled the 1960s-era wells that polluted Watt’s land, brought in earth-moving equipment and a well-control crew, even though it had sold most of its interests there years ago. It took 10 days to halt the first leak. Given the hundreds of other aging wells dotting the land, it’s done little to put Watt’s mind at ease.
“I am not anti-oil industry,” Watt said in an interview. “That is the economy here. It’s a good business.” At the same the same time, she said, “We have to be responsible stewards. If we can’t do it right here in the Permian Basin, then how can we do it right anywhere? Nobody should let us in if we’re going to act like this.”
Got no choice…it’s that or the end of BAU…can’t cry over spilled milk and no clean up is coming.
Any kind of energy development is likely to have end-of-system problems that have generally been ignored in models. Solar panels will pollute areas, if left to decompose. Coal fired power plants have a lot of ash that cannot be disposed of well. Broken hydroelectric dams will take down whole cities. Oil extraction that doesn’t require fracking may be better than average, for avoiding long term problems.
EROEI models and “levelized cost of electricity” models represent best case situations. They don’t take into account the need to mitigate the problems that inevitably arise.
Remember an article some years ago by an energy analyst stated
“ALL Energy is Dirty!”
That is a good way of describing the issue.
Poisoned land? Negligent corporations?
She gets to know what it feels like to be African…….
In fifteen minutes, Dr. Samantha Bailey logically demolishes the attacks being leveled against the truth-telling doctors of New Zealand. Those doctors have banded together and created an organization called “New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science.”
By the way, I love her accent.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/T71ZVNAXi0jW/
I like her eyes large wide set
Dr Sam Bailey: the Good, the True, and the Beautiful…….
Amusingly sarcastic, too.
I must send Dr Sam an invite to join my post Apocalypse Harem!